


A World Stained Crimson

by APenguinAteMySmarthphone



Category: Generations from Exile Tribe (Band), Prince of Legend (TV), The Rampage from Exile Tribe (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Blood and Violence, Character Death, Characters who have never canonically interacted will interact, Eventual Romance, Graphic Description, Hopefully I can pull this off..., I'm Bad At Tagging, I'm Bad At Titles, I'm sorry I'm just bad at everything in general, If I Like It I Will Write It, It's an AU who cares, Lots of drama, Magic, Minor Violence, More character tags to be added...maybe, Multi, Mythical Beings & Creatures, Mythology References, No spoilers for actual show, Non-Canon Relationship, Not Canon Compliant, POV Alternating, Swearing, actually idk the line between minor and major, kids say bad words, more than they probably do in canon, not at all
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-27
Updated: 2020-10-19
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:54:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 26
Words: 173,701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23868613
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/APenguinAteMySmarthphone/pseuds/APenguinAteMySmarthphone
Summary: The 4 Kingdoms of the Eastern continent have, for centuries, been bound in contract to mythical beasts; the Blue Dragon of the Azure Kingdom, the Vermilion Bird of the Crimson Kingdom, the White Tiger of the Opal Kingdom, and the Black Tortoise of the Obsidian Kingdom. Each kingdom has ensured to maintain a proper balance with these creatures, creating harmony between men and nature.However, over 500 years ago, the mythical beasts disappeared mysteriously, leaving not a hint to their whereabouts, and consequently taking away the great power they would've bestowed upon future successors. Now, the kingdoms rely upon their own magic and knowledge. Not a single heir afterwards has been bound in contract with a mythic.When Koki and his friends decide to enter a town tournament in order to win an invitation to the prince's coming-of-age ceremony, trouble was the last thing on any of their minds. But when the party is suddenly crashed by a group of assassins out for Kanade's life, a series of dark and dangerous plots begins to unfold, and everyone in the 4 kingdoms is abruptly dragged into a whirlwind of madness that could drive the entirety of their world straight into chaos.
Relationships: Kyogoku Ryu/Tendo Koki, Other Relationship Tags to Be Added, Suzaku Kanade/Kuon Seiichiro (one-sided), Tendo Koki & Hiura Kaiji & Odajima Riku
Comments: 4
Kudos: 17





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I have been working on an AU idea like this for MONTHS, and you won't believe the size of my notes. It expanded a LOT, much more than I originally planned. I was debating which series I should apply the idea to, but I chose the one I do the most, since freeform, yay!  
> I want to make my chapters long and write good, exciting content. There may be a lot of buildup, or the plot may seem to slow, so if anyone could spare some advice for this beggar, it would be much appreciated.  
> But I hope you enjoy from here on out!

The Crimson Kingdom is a land of great prosperity, and a source of great pride to its residents. Grand festivals were held within the plazas of even the smallest towns for, what other kingdoms would consider, the most insignificant of events. Parades for the first full moon of each month, small festival days to celebrate the solstices of both summer and winter, and a day dedicated to ripe harvest during autumn. Flaunting prosperity, much like the Vermilion Bird flaunting its gorgeous plumage, was a trait that the Crimson Kingdom reveled in, and they utilized it without a shred of hesitation. 

However, _this_ day was different. No kingdom would call it a small event, and this particular day was, in fact, considered to be the best time to hold the grandest of all celebrations.

Kanade, heir to the Suzaku royal line and prince of the Crimson Kingdom, was hosting his coming of age ceremony. Such ceremonies were a big deal; for the commoners, it signified the welcome of who would potentially be their new king, and for nobility, it signified a time where they would have to decide where to start placing their bets. Seiichiro could already see them debating passionately about which royal, their current king or their potential new one, would be the smartest choice to stand behind.

If it were up to him, Seiichiro would ensure everyone threw their support behind Kanade. He was a benevolent prince, and kind to all. He was the opposite of his more materialistic father, who placed the value of people in how often he saw them at his royal gatherings. Kanade's personality was partially, no, _largely_ why the celebration was such an anticipated event. For the first time in God knows how long, the prince had declared his ceremony, the official one to be held at the palace, open to the public. Of course, his father had advised him against it, and after much debate, they settled on a two part party; one during the day, open to all, and one during the night, open to a select few. Kanade insisted that a few commoners be invited to the second as well.

_If we separate the two parties and restrict the working class to the first, it will seem I am trying to keep them apart. I must show that class differences mean little to me, if I am to win their support, and lead them, in the future._

Seiichiro recalled, with a rueful smile, his friend's face when he had said that. It was a very Kanade-like thing to say, both benevolent and ambitious all at the same time.

In the end, Kanade wore his father down, and they agreed to a truce. The second party would be open to a few commoners, but only those who managed to win themselves a pass. Several contest committees were hurriedly opened in several large towns across the kingdom, the prize being an exclusive invitation to the after party.

Now, here they were, only a couple of days before the grand event, and Kanade was trying to figure out what the big deal was with choosing between two shades of red for the drapes that would line the balconies of the ballroom. Although not part of the design committee, Gen, Kanade's second retainer after Seiichiro, was explaining passionately about the statements of choosing one or the other color. The prince, being slightly naive at times, was listening with great fascination, nodding along now and again. If he had some paper with him, surely he would be taking notes.

"Gen, that's enough," Seiichiro sighed, "Sword practice began 15 minutes ago and yet we're still here discussing the best tapestries to hang on the walls. This is a job for the servants, not for us."

"Come now Seiichiro, don't be like that," Kanade pouted, slightly, before grinning cheekily. "Gen can't help that he's so immersed in the castle's design! After all, aren't you always telling me that it is important to understand the relevance of color to each kingdom?"

"Yes, but that is not an indication that you should be immersing yourself in _tapestries_. I merely meant from a political standpoint, you should consider the significance each color holds to each kingdom."

"Oh, don't be so tense. We're all coming of age soon; there's no point being so stiff!" Kanade smiled wistfully. "I can't wait. I'm sure the party will be very enjoyable."

Seiichiro tried to mask his surprise; he'd never heard Kanade claim to be excited at the prospect of a celebration dedicated to himself. Even on his birthdays he maintained a calm demeanor and thanked everyone profusely for showing him such kindness every year.

"I'm sure it will be a rousing success, your Majesty." Gen smiled; he, too, had seen quite a few birthdays with the two of them as well. No doubt he was glad to see the prince so excited. 

Kanade flashed them both a smile, and for a split second, Seiichiro couldn't breathe. He marveled at how bright his smile was; he could travel for miles, go to different kingdoms, and still not find a smile this brilliant...

The moment lasted for a second before he caught himself, and hastily cleared his throat. Gen shot a small glance at him, but Seiichiro was already turning around to head to the training room and did not notice.

As they walked, Gen and Kanade once again struck up a lively conversation, with Seiichiro piping up every now and then. The walk to the training room from the ballroom was a long one, and, if one wasn't accustomed to the palace, could take up to an hour. 

"By the way, your Majesty," Gen glanced at Kanade, briefly, slight concern coloring his tone, "Is it really safe to host such a large celebration against your father's wishes? I support you more than I do him, but-"

"Careful, Gen." Seiichiro gave a barely perceptible nod in the direction of a pair of doors; they were ajar, and anyone could be listening in on their conversation.

"My apologies." quickly lowering his voice to a mouse's whisper, Gen leaned in towards Kanade.

(Seiichiro denied the brief moment of bitterness that flared up within him, quashing it down and desperately ignoring its burning aftertaste.)

"Was he be upset? Will this be of some consequence to you in the future?"

"Doubtful," Seiichiro snorted, "The king knows Kanade has a good point; he just didn't want to admit it back then. He didn't think up things like that during _his_ ceremony, I'm sure, and that's why he felt compelled to go against his own son's suggestion."

"He has his own pride as a father, although I feel it is a little misplaced." Kanade laughed, quietly, with a rueful grin.

"But Kanade, more than that..." Seiichiro turned to his friend, a crease forming between his brow.

"Yes?"

"is this truly safe?"

"Whatever do you mean?"

"I know you're popular, and many of the people love you, far more than the king, although they will never say it aloud. However..." Here he paused, readying what he was about to say (and fearing, even though he knew his fears were misplaced and for naught, that he would be hated for saying it). 

"It will be a grand event," Seiichiro looked him directly in the eyes, evenly. "There will be many people, not just the nobility. Are you sure it is safe to open the doors to so many strangers?"

"They're not strangers, Seiichiro," Kanade glanced back at his old friend just as levelly. "They will be my subjects. And I refuse to be like my father, who closes the gate to paradise upon the common folk so that he can revel in luxury with the small pool of nobility." 

At that, Seiichiro felt something in his stomach jump slightly, and he remembered the first time when he had sworn loyalty to his childhood friend. _Ah, this is exactly what he's like, every time, no doubts nor hesitation; someone like him **deserves** the people's love; he can say things like this with such conviction, such confidence..._

"Besides," the young prince continued, with a small and slightly mischievous grin, "What's the worst that could possibly happen?"


	2. Chapter 2

He still has a hard time believing they're actually doing this.

When Kaiji came home with the flyer and excitedly read aloud its contents, the prospect had _sounded_ exciting, sure, but at the time he hadn't really taken it all that seriously, seeing it as nothing more than a little excitement that was coming up soon, in their very town. Something that would be fun to look at, but not the kind of thing he had ever expected they would join, much less take seriously.

So Kaiji's excited suggestion- that they should dance in the upcoming competition- had lacked reality, and Koki had been half skeptical they would go through with it at all. Until they began practicing every day well into the night.

He'd sort of expected Riku to laugh off their friend's suggestion but when _he_ had also taken it in, Koki had shrugged and thought, _well, it sounds like it could be a little fun_ , and decided to humor them. But then the two had begun to seriously invest themselves into the choreography, sometimes going hours a day without stop, until Koki or Kaiji's grandmother brought them something to eat and practically dragged them away from their notes. And then when they actually began to practice, he had a very literal time-stopping moment of _oh, they're being **serious** about this_. Then time had started again because Riku had grabbed him by the arms and practically pushed him towards the center. 

In Koki's opinion, while the prize had seemed grand - an invitation into the palace itself - he couldn't really get himself as invested as the other two. Yes, the party seemed like fun, and it was the sort of thing people would want to do if they were given the opportunity at least _once_ in their lifetime, but... he sometimes caught himself wishing he could back out, and then he hated himself for it.

Kaiji and Riku were both extremely talented as dancers, and they had both made themselves well known in their corner of the town as such; they'd both, apparently, been practicing at the art since they were small. Koki had only watched back then, until they eventually dragged him in. 

Which would make it perfectly sensible that they'd chosen dancing as their performance, but what he didn't understand was **why they had decided to put him as their center**.

When they were dancing for the sake of enjoyment, he hadn't minded. He was absolutely certain that out of the three of them, his abilities were the most lacking - they certainly **felt** that way - but he hadn't been so conscious of that fact when they had simply been doing it for fun. 

Performing in front of the entire town was another matter entirely, one that made his stomach do somersaults that he wish he could pull of in his dancing. _That_ would be impressive. He felt himself fall into the usual routine of what he called utter despair (and what the other two jokingly referred to as his 'meaningless slumps').

That day, only a week before the competition, it rained buckets, as if the entirety of the sky had just suffered a massive personal tragedy and felt the need to drown the world in its sorrow. In his opinion, this had seemed a perfectly sensible analogy but Riku had laughed and called him overdramatic. 

Kaiji's grandmother, an herbalist, and in their collected opinion, the best in the whole town, had allowed them the use of her attic as a practice space in case the weather ever went sour. In her wise words "nature has never waited on any man", and she had given her grandson and his friends the room on the condition they help around the shop in the evening, after practice. As all three of them absolutely loved her, they had no problem with this arrangement in the slightest. 

That evening, largely because of the rain, they had very little customers. One man looking for his wife's usual medicine, a young girl sent to get ointment that would heal rashes, and a few others. Kaiji, having worked here his entire life, ran around, helping them get their orders, while Riku and Koki mostly kept to cleaning out the cabinets of outdated supplies. The rain continued, as relentless as ever, well into the night.

* * *

It must have almost been midnight when he jolted up, and for a split second, he couldn't figure out where he was, until he saw the familiar wooden beams of the roof and remembered he was in Kaiji's attic. Usually he slept in the second floor room the Hiura family had provided for him but this night, because Riku had stayed over, the three had all decided to sleep in the attic. He could hear them both, close by, but judging from the even breathing coming from both of them, they were still asleep and hadn't been awakened by his sudden movement. 

_Must have been a bad dream_ , he concluded, but he couldn't make himself fall asleep again. 

He was used to the attic roof, had stared at it countless times since childhood, and was used to sleeping here too, with these two right near him. Sometimes he'd done the very same as he was doing now; sit and stare at the ceiling, marveling at the immediate comfort and security having a home seemed to inherently provide.

When Koki had first come to the Hiura's family shop, Kaiji had been dragging him by the hand and Riku had been worriedly asking him repeated questions, none of which he could've answered. Since then, the family had shown him miraculous amounts of kindness, and the two boys had become his closest - really, his only - friends. He trusted them more than anyone; enough to simply lay defenseless as he was now, when he had never been able to do that as a small child before. He wanted them to be just as happy as they made him.

Which meant he **should** be just as excited as they were at the prospect of winning the competition, but he **wasn't** , and that made him feel even more awful.

_I can't sleep if I keep thinking._

Sighing to himself, and at himself, too, Koki shambled over to the attic window. Maybe he would feel better with a breath of fresh air. At the very least, he wanted to _stop thinking so negatively._

When he approached the window and opened it a crack, at first, he didn't notice the long shadow cast on the roof next to him, shaped in the vague form of a person. 

But then when he opened the window further, something _moved_ in his peripheral vision, and he froze when he saw the human-like shadow... and his vision traveled upward.

_Something_ was there.

Almost mechanically, and with such slow movement that one could almost hear the bones creak, Koki turned his head.

And saw, sitting on the roof, not a mere few paces away, another boy, with a dagger out and pointed directly toward him.

* * *

Ayanokoji Aoi had an extensive list of principles and rules set out for himself. Among the most important was to be a proper leader for the people of this town, for whom he was the mayor, and also to maintain proper health and set an example (and also to be ready for any sort of trouble that required great amounts of vigor). 

But when he was stamped with work - _necessary_ work - that needed to be completed, it was hard to balance the two, and he found himself working late into the night, which always made Gabriel fret over his well-being. 

"You'll catch a cold, sir, and you mustn't stay up so late, it does awful things to your health-" was usually how Gabriel started their conversations lately.

And Aoi would insist he was fine - although he knew his assistant was right - because he needed to get this work done, and his health was a secondary concern in the face of the townspeople relying on him. 

The town he operated in was the largest of all the towns in the Crimson Kingdom's domain, thus making it the greatest hub of activity year round. Aoi couldn't remember the last time the mayor's office had ever **not** been busy, and ever since he had taken office he had been swamped with paperwork. Which was fine in of itself, but the nobility and royal family didn't make matters any easier for him, and he resented them immensely for it. The nobles had little regard for the common folk, and the king himself rarely lent an ear to Aoi's appeals for an audience; and even when he did, he rarely listened to what he had to say. At first he'd thought it one of the downsides of being the youngest mayor in the empire's history, but recently he was beginning to think it was just because anyone above the middle class just tended to be a jerk in general. He'd stopped making appeals and simply made changes without the king's permission, ready to face any setbacks waiting... and was half-shocked, half-relieved, and all-around annoyed when he found that the king barely paid attention to what he did, contributing the bettering conditions of the town to the kingdom's own wealth and luck. 

_If I'd known what a clown he was,_ Aoi had fumed to Gabriel one day, _I would've gone ahead with all my plans ages ago._

But the town he worked for seemed to appreciate his efforts, and seeing that his ideas had succeeded at making everyone happier were enough of its own reward. Everyone called him a paragon of a leader, and many had told him that it was a shame he couldn't be the king; surely the entire kingdom would benefit if it were so. 

As he worked, his eyes drifted to a thin envelope, embroidered with gold lettering. An invitation to Prince Kanade's birthday party, the one that would be held by exclusive invitation only. 

If he could decide, he would absolutely decline; both the party open to the entirety of the kingdom (good lord, how did they plan to even manage such a great number of people??) and the one afterward, held at night. Neither events were of any interest to him. But as mayor, if he didn't go out and represent his town to the new king - surely he would be, as their current one couldn't stay in power forever, and this one was rumored to be rather ambitious - then it set a bad image. As reluctant as he was, it was an event he couldn't skip.

But attending also meant he would have even more backed up work, and the mere thought made him want to punch a hole in his desk. And perhaps in the wall, although he would feel bad for the people who would have to fix it afterwards.

There was a sudden knock at his door, almost startling him straight out of his chair, before he quickly collected himself and cleared his throat. "Come in."

Gabriel popped his head inside, a look of slight concern etched across his face. "Err... sorry Aoi-sama, if I'm disturbing you."

Aoi shook his hand, "No, it's fine. What is it?"

"Well," his assistant pushed up his glasses, his voice nervous, "You have a guest."

"A guest?" he blinked, then looked out the window. "Gabe, it's well past midnight. A guest? Are you sure?"

"That's what I thought too, but they insisted they had to see you immediately." The tall man gave an apologetic shrug, before glancing behind him. "I can send them on their way if you'd like."

"No, it's fine, let them in." 

"Are you sure? It's awfully late..."

"If they insist they must see me _now_ , then one can only assume it's rather urgent. Let them in, Gabe, I'll see what they have to say."

"Alright," giving a bow, his assistant turned, but before he could close the door, Aoi quickly called him back.

"Wait. Did they say anything about where they come from? This town, or perhaps another?" While he can't say he knows each and every single person in this town, not a single citizen had yet to bother him with such a late night visit. 

"They didn't say but..." Gabriel turned back to his boss, hesitant. He doesn't want to alarm his boss, but he knows what he saw. "For a split second, the front of their cloak opened, so I only saw it for a moment."

"Saw what?"

"The guest who wants to talk to you was wearing the emblem of the Blue Dragon. The symbol of the Azure Kingdom."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't you just hate it when you're worrying about a talent show and wake up for some fresh air but get a knife pointed at your face?  
> And don't you just hate it when you're trying to work late but some mysterious stranger drops by at like, 2 AM?  
> Anyways, yay, made another chapter. Do I have a schedule with this? No, I probably do not. That is probably a terrible idea, but motivation strikes when it decides to, y'know?


	3. Chapter 3

Even before he landed on the roof of the herbalist's shop - at least, he _thinks_ it's an herbalist's shop - Ryu was already beginning to see where the plan was going all wrong.

As per his brother's instructions, he had waited to come into the town; no matter how strong their magic was, it took a lot of effort to maintain a disguise, and even more to remain invisible. Takato had figured that if they entered the town at separate intervals it would draw less suspicion; he would enter the town first and find the perfect rendezvous point for them to meet up, and then fire-message him the location in the afternoon. 

Which was a fine plan and all, but after seeing the hordes of travelers passing the gates of the town they had stopped at, he was beginning to think that maybe they wouldn't have drawn as much suspicion as Takato had feared.

(Once he saw the group of men wearing cloaks even shadier than his own, no questions asked, he became 100% positive they could have walked straight into the _mayor's_ office without a hitch.)

But their mission was to be completed with the "utmost secrecy", according to his brother, and while he had to wonder about the credibility of those instructions - considering the person his brother had got them from - he had to admit working covertly suited him more than walking around in broad daylight.

_Especially_ when one was in a different kingdom, far from their own.

So he waited, and when he got the words floated in front of him, scrawled in fire with his older brother's messy hand, he headed to what Takato called "the shop that smells like it could belong to an herbalist in the West District". Apparently its landmark was a weird stone statue that looked sort of like a bird with its head bashed in sitting on the front steps. A very Takato-like explanation, he thought with a mixture of fondness and exasperation.

But mere _seconds_ before he could message Takato back to ask him to "be a little more specific", it suddenly began to rain. 

Fire-messages, if it were not obvious already, were written in fire, so no matter how hard he tried to scribble out a message using the last remaining bits of the _jiéshi_ he had brought with him, the rain, which was steadily increasing in strength as if to mock his efforts, continued to put it out. Eventually he gave up and stuffed the diminishing stone into his pocket, noting that he had to find a place that sold them while he was here. With that in mind, he entered the gates. 

The inside of the town, despite the rain, still maintained an appearance of abundant cheer; there were people cheerfully calling from the safety of their doorways, and stores and eateries blazed with the lights of lamp fire. The roofs, he noted, were all some shade of red, or a brown close enough to the color. He noted with slight interest that the central plaza of the town was lavishly decorated, although a few villagers scrambled about, pulling down decorations to protect from the rain. A young woman was laughing merrily as she watched a much older man scramble about with a hand full of flowers, all red and pink and orange and blooming like a brilliant sunset. 

"It's a shame," a voice said, and Ryu nearly jumped a mile when he heard it, "The prince's birthday is coming up, and the town was gonna put together a festival to celebrate. Hope nothing gets ruined too horribly."

Behind him stood a man in a cloak a purple so deep, it reminded him of the midnight sky. The edges were frayed slightly, and it had obviously been well-used. The man gave him a bemused glance, and Ryu realized that it was one of the men in the "cloaks shadier than his own". 

"Saw you staring, so I couldn't help but speak up. Sorry if I startled you, stranger." The man turned, raising one hand as if in greeting. "You should find yourself some shelter. This rain's probably not gonna stop until the sun sets." And then he was gone, leaving a bewildered Ryu behind.

Eventually he snapped out of his confusion to realize, yes, he _was_ getting soaked, and he probably should seek shelter. But he didn't want to enter any of the open pubs and taverns, and there was no way he was going to walk up to one of the citizens and ask them if they knew of any places to rest. He wanted to leave as little an impression of himself as possible, and the strange encounter back there was already risky enough as it was, in his mind. He set out to find his brother's rendezvous point.

* * *

He _found_ what he was looking for, supposedly. An herbalist's shop - or at least, a shop with the smell of herbs - with a small, strange stone idol decorating the front, in the shape of a... duck? With its head bashed in from the side. A sorry sight, really. He felt a small temptation to fix the duck, but then decided if the owners of the establishment were fine with having what appeared to be the victim of an attempted homicide gracing their front door, then that was on them.

The _real_ problem was, his brother hadn't been there. And he still couldn't fire-message him because the rain seemed to _insist_ on getting on his nerves, so after several minutes of intense internal debate, he settled on hiding on the roof. The building was tall, and thanks to the roofs shingles and the angle of its slopes, it would be difficult for anyone to spot him, even if he sat close to the edge. No one would see him unless the people here made it a habit to check their roofs for sudden guests. After giving it some more thought, he opted to use the rest of the _jiéshi_ to turn himself invisible for the rest of the day; at the very least, there was enough magic left in the stone for that. However, he wouldn't be able to send any more fire-messages tonight. 

Which was fine; he figured it wouldn't make a difference, what with the rain and all. But then, only an hour or so after the sun had set and the moon had risen, the rain, as if making one last effort to laugh at him in the face, stopped.

Ryu debated if it would be insanity to use the _jiéshi_ to fly up to the sky and drag down whatever deity was in charge of the weather so he could sock him a good one in the face. 

When he examined the stone, he noted, with slight alarm, that its light was already very dim, and he estimated at most another three hours before it vanished entirely. Enough time to wait for his brother, but not enough to last him through the night. And the remaining magic energy definitely was not enough to send a lengthy fire-message. 

_I could scratch off an hour of hiding or so if I message Takato a relatively short message... But then I don't know if he'll get it, or if he has enough_ jiéshi _left to respond._

As he sat there debating his options, the moon rose higher, and eventually complete silence descended on the street. Not even a tipsy wanderer, back from a night at the tavern with friends, could be found roaming the streets. It was... disturbing, if he was being honest. Back where Ryu was from, no matter how quiet the nights, they were never unpopulated. Lamps stored with _jiéshi_ would send out hues of pretty lights into the sky, and sometimes he could hear the calls of strange beasts from the mountains while he tucked his younger siblings in. Never once had he considered the night to be so _lifeless_ , as if the whole world had stopped talking a breath. It felt wrong, and before he knew what he was doing, he had a hand on his dagger.

Then the window to his left opened with such abruptness that Ryu, without exaggeration, almost fell off the roof in shock. 

A kid - really, there was no other way to describe him - had his head stuck out slightly, and although Ryu couldn't see his whole face, the person's side profile was that of a youth, and he had a head full of hair a color red that Ryu had never seen on another person. It was the color of wine, deep and brilliant, and it stood in contrast with the paleness of the boy's skin. His eyes were turned towards the stars, and Ryu held his breath and slowly backed up, thanking the gods he had chosen to remain invisible... when suddenly the boy whipped his head towards him, eyes wide with surprise, like a startled rabbit. On instinct, Ryu yanked out his dagger from his sheath at exactly the same moment, before holding the tip to point towards the boy's bewildered face.

_No way. No FUCKING way he can see see me._

"Wha-," the boy blinked, looking at Ryu, his expression perplexed, "What are you doing?"

_WHY THE FU-_

" **How** are you seeing me?" Ryu held the dagger up, tightening his grip on the hilt. "And don't yell out or anything, or I _will_ stab you faster than you can call for help."

"What do you mean _how_?" The red-haired youth gave him a look of complete indignation. "You're sitting on my roof. Well, technically, it's Kaiji's grandma's roof, but we live here, so I guess I can also call it mine. _You're_ the one sitting on people's roofs and threatening them with fancy knives instead of coming to the front door like a normal person." A pause. "Oh, wait, is this a burglary? Am I supposed to be giving you this house's valuables? Well, I'm sorry, but there's nothing here for-"

"Shut," Ryu stuttered, lost in the sea of the boy's words, "Shut up for a second! By the gods, what are you going on about?"

"Me?!" The boy looked affronted, "I'm not the one skulking on people's roofs! I just wanted a breath of fresh air, not to have a knife pointed at my face by some crazy guy sitting next to the window."

" **I am not a crazy-** " Ryu paused, groaning, "This is ridiculous. I'm asking _how_ can you see me? I'm supposed to be invisible!"

"Uhh," the boy frowned, eyes travelling up and down, "No, I'm pretty sure you're not. Are you _sure_ you didn't hit your head or something?"

Ryu snarled, and with his free hand rooted about in his pockets for the _jiéshi_ , carefully pulling it out once his finger wrapped around it, eyes trained on the red-haired youth the whole time. The other boy didn't seem particularly scared by the presence of the dagger; instead, he turned his head back to the starry sky, eyes widened like those of an excited child. He gave Ryu a glance before saying, in a friendlier voice, "Y'know, I've never seen stars this clearly at night. Usually I'm always fast asleep until dawn. Were you looking at them too?"

Ryu ignored him, instead glaring down at the _jiéshi_ in his palm. There was still a dim glow, indicating that there should still be enough magic for him to be maintaining his invisibility. The slight pulse of the stone indicated that it was also still at use too; his invisibility should still be up. He had no memories of erasing the spell.

"What's that?" The boy leaned further out the window, and Ryu nearly stumbled forward; not, he realized, to scare him back inside with the dagger, but more so because the boy was leaning out of the window at an angle that would've likely caused his parents heart attacks. 

"You don't know what a _jiéshi_ is?" he asked, and the boy tilted his head.

"I feel like I've heard the name," was the answer, slow and unsure, "But I don't remember where or what it was."

"People in the Crimson Kingdom call them 'God's stones', from what I heard," Ryu held up the _jiéshi_ , "It's no big secret, really. They're stones with magic energy, so humans can utilize them to manipulate the flow of spiritual energy in the world, like they did when the mythic beasts roamed alongside people in the past."

"'From what I heard'?" The boy frowned. "Are you not from the Crimson Kingdom?"

_Shit._

"Well," he stuttered, "I'm not from the kingdom directly. I just... came from a small outlying territory to the east." Not the truth, but not a complete lie either.

"Oh." After a pause, the boy smiled, brightly, "Is that why you called the stone that weird name, ji-something?"

"J _iéshi_." he corrected. "Yes, I was speaking my native tongue. That's what we call them, where I come from. It's more of a mouthful to say God's stones each and every time, right?" 

Before he realized it, Ryu had lowered the dagger and put it back in its sheath. "By the way, are you Hiura?"

"Huh?" The boy gave him a look of surprise. "You know Kaiji's family?"

"What? No, I meant," Ryu paused and pointed down, towards the street, "The store name says 'Hiura' so I figured..."

"Oh, no, I'm not. 'Hiura' is my friend, and his family has been looking after me for a while."

Ryu doesn't know what prompts this, but he finds himself asking, despite his better knowledge not to, "So, what's your name then?"

"Me? I'm Koki." The boy - Koki - glanced at him, "I don't really know my last name, so they just gave me the name 'Tendo'. What about you?"

"Ryu," he pauses, "Kyogoku." _Dammit Ryu, you idiot._

All of a sudden, he hears a slight ringing towards the back of his head; the signal of a fire message about to arrive. Flustered, he stood up, "Look, I'm sorry for startling you, but I have to go."

"Huh?" 

Koki glanced up at him, surprise decorating his features once again, and Ryu thought he saw, for just an instant, something - disappointment? - flash across his face, and found himself, to his surprise, feeling just the same thing.

At that exact moment, a voice he had never heard before suddenly announced its presence, "Koki? What are you doing by the window?"

Another boy popped his head out the window, bleary eyes turned towards his friend.

"Oh, hey Riku, I was just looking at the sky." Koki glanced at Ryu, worriedly; he was currently backing up slowly, praying the other boy wouldn't notice and waiting for him to turn his head away.

"Who were you talking to? I thought I heard your voice."

"Oh, um..." 

And then the newcomer, the black haired boy Koki had called Riku, _looked_ in Ryu's direction, before frowning. 

"There's no one out here... Are you feeling alright?"

""Huh?!"" 

The two boys' voices perfectly overlapped, but even then Riku didn't seem perturbed, instead glancing at his friend with apparent concern. "Are you feeling alright? I know you've been nervous about dancing in front of more people than usual, but I keep telling you, you'll do great. Staying up late like this is making you stressed; you should go back to bed."

"Wait, wait, Riku, do you not..." Koki glanced at Ryu, who had frozen in complete confusion, the fire-message buzzing with urgency at the back of his mind and giving him a headache. "Do you not see him?"

His friend gave the roof another glance, even going so far as sticking his upper half out further, but even then he shook his head, even when his eyes _passed right over Ryu_.

"I don't see anyone, Koki."

"But he's right the-"

Ryu didn't bother to hear the rest of their argument, instead dashing up the roof and over to the other side, before jumping down to the street below. He rushed into an alley - really, he should've done this from the beginning - and immediately pulled up the message his brother had, finally, sent him.

_Hey, Ryu, I'm sorry this came so late; my_ jiéshi _ran out and I spent the entire day running around looking for a new one. You won't **believe** where I found it; at some old pawn shop! Some of these people really don't realize the value of these things; they just call them God's stones and think they're just, like, super rare and valuable. If I hadn't pawned it off the guy, who knows where it would've ended up! Probably in some old musty collection..._

"Takato, just get to the point," muttered Ryu, as he continued to read through the countless lines of flaming text.

_So anyway, with this new stone we should be set for a good amount of time, seeing as we'll likely be staying here longer. Oh yeah, and we can't go to the mayor's office here. Seems like they already have a guest, and they've been talking for a long time, and they looked **super** shady, so I'm guessing they won't be taking any more shady dudes tonight._

"Another visitor? At this hour?" Ryu frowned, then gave a small sigh. "Well, we don't really have room to judge there."

_Oh, yeah, and since the prince's birthday celebration is coming up, I figured we could use that opportunity to get into the palace and find someone we could talk to. Personally, I would prefer the prince, but that may be hard... so I've got my eye on any one of his retainers. Anyways, meet me at the plaza of the town tomorrow at dawn, before it gets crowded. Hope you rested well tonight, and my bad about not being at the meeting place._

Ryu sighed, but it was more of fondness than exasperation. But before he could close the message his eyes caught on one final line of text; it seemed more hastily scrawled, like Takato had quickly added it on.

_Oh, and there was one last thing. Well, more like I just heard this, now, but..._

_We have to be careful. Apparently, we're not the only visitors from another kingdom in this town right now._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> jiéshi (結石) - literally just Chinese for 'stone' 
> 
> I'm not proficient in Chinese (for I speak the language of the Japanese), but I am using my meager Chinese knowledge, scrounged from textbooks, so please bear with me and any linguistic mishaps I will likely make from now on.
> 
> Longest chapter I've ever written, so I'm spent.


	4. Chapter 4

_A week later_

"Hard to believe it was raining so hard just only a week ago."

Koki turned and glanced at Kaiji, who had uttered the comment; the tall blonde in question was peering outside the waiting tent, eyes fixed on the current performer. "It was crazy; Grandma told me that a lot of the flowers and stuff wilted because they got left out in the rain too long, too much water and all that."

"Well, it was a full week ago," Riku piped in. "I'm sure that was plenty of time to find replacement flowers, and from what my parents told me they managed to salvage a good number of the larger decorations." At this, he lifted a hand to point towards the center of the plaza, where everyone was gathered around. "Like the giant paper Vermilion Bird. They're gonna use it when the parade happens tonight."

"Well, then I suppose we'll miss out on that," Kaiji turned around and shot his two friends a grin, dazzling with confidence. "Seeing as _we're_ gonna win and all."

Koki groaned, "Please stop." He glowered at his friend resentfully from behind his red bangs, "I know _you_ have plenty of reason to say that, but _I_ don't so if you would kindly just cut it out...?"

"Oh _come on_ , Koki, you can't seriously still think that we're gonna lose to these guys?" Kaiji jerked a thumb at the performers outside. "We've been practicing harder than anyone; I know that for a fact. And you practice ten times harder than anyone we've both ever known, so really, you should be the _last_ person to be freaking out at this date."

"Y'know, if you'd agreed to sing you would've avoided all this stress," teased Riku, playfully, "Seeing as you obviously have _that_ talent, no doubt about it."

"But you said 'absolutely not'", chimed in Kaiji, shooting Riku a smirk. "So here we are. You yourself would get all sad if we left you out, wouldn't you?"

"Shut up." 

Koki turned away from the two of them, cheeks puffed out in indignation. He didn't notice the two shoot each other rueful smiles.

But contrary to what his friends were worried about - although Koki himself hadn't noticed their concern, masked with teasing - it wasn't their performance that he had been stressing about, recently. At the very least, not for the past week.

It was that mysterious boy on the Hiura's roof, who had pulled out a weapon before proper introductions were made, and then had turned out to be surprisingly kind, who was occupying his thoughts; it wasn't everyday that you witnessed something so spectacularly _bizarre_ in the middle of the night. And what had he said to Koki that had had him so flustered...? 

_You're not supposed to see me._

What did _that_ mean? It had been too much of a whirlwind of events for Koki to have thought about it properly, but as the week had passed, those words had nagged him without end. _I'm supposed to be invisible_. From a glance, the words seemed like nonsense, but... He didn't know. It had all been too confusing. 

He'd recounted the experience to Kaiji and Riku, who had first freaked out about the whole being-threatened-with-a-weapon thing, and then immediately demanded to know why he had struck up conversation with someone so dangerous. It had been rather heartwarming, if he was being honest (so, never), to see them display such a deep level of concern for his well-being, even now.

But then Riku had mentioned that he hadn't been able to see the boy, despite having looked at the roof with Koki's prompting. Even though Ryu (right, that was his name) had still been there long enough for Riku to have gotten at least _one_ good look at him, his black-haired friend had continued to shake his head and say he saw no one. 

He had no reason to lie. Meaning _something_ strange was at work here, but he couldn't pinpoint it. Kaiji had told him to stop worrying about it; he and Riku had both decided that, for all their safety, they would no longer sleep in the attic, at least for the time being. _I'm sure someone will report a suspicious person like that right away,_ Riku had said, _So don't worry too much._

However, what was _really_ bothering him... Well, he had left that part out of the story. It was a minor detail, but he - for some reason - had felt it best not to mention it.

He hadn't told his friends about the _jiéshi._ God's stones, or whatever Ryu had said they were called. He didn't know why. 

The stone had, for lack of better word, _disturbed_ him, made him suddenly feel _wrong_. Like someone had told him the sky was actually the sea and he was actually just a plant, living a mundane plant life. As if _something_ inside of him had been ever so slightly disturbed, enough to make him feel out of balance. When he'd seen it in Ryu's palm, he'd gotten the vague feeling that he should be - as odd as this would sound - _offended_ at its presence somehow.

But then the feeling had passed, and all was left was a serene sense of curiosity that prompted him to strike up a conversation with this mysterious stranger on the roof. 

"Koki," Kaiji's voice, right by his ear, suddenly snapped him out of his reverie. "Are you alright?" 

The raw concern in his friend's voice, coupled with the intense look in his eyes, almost pushed him to blurt out the truth, _no, I'm not, I've been stressing out over the **weirdest** turn of events that has ever happened to me, ever_, but he quickly regains his calm, and nods twice; once for his friend and once to convince himself.

"I'm fine," he shot the blonde a small grin, "Thanks."

"If you say so." Kaiji glanced at him with a small trace of doubt, before running his finger playfully through Koki's wine red hair, ruffling it. "Come on, our turn is coming up soon, and Riku wants to take one more look at your outfit."

"It's weird, isn't it?"

"Weird? I thought they looked cool... and your's really suits you. It's very fashionable." 

"Liar. You were laughing when I put it on!"

"Nooo, I was only laughing because you looked like my cat when we tried to put a bow in his hair that one time. Disgruntled and unsatisfied."

They continued this banter for some time, before Riku, who had been ruefully listening to them outside, dragged them apart, scolded them for being noisy, and did a thorough final check of their wardrobe.

* * *

_It's noisy here,_ was Naruse Kanon's first impression of the town when she had finally reached its gates. _And crowded. Too many people._

It would be hard to go incognito. And more importantly, she _didn't like people._ Large crowds could go die out and never come back.

When she learned that the town was celebrating the prince's coming-of-age ceremony, she had had a very bad premonition. She hadn't been wrong; when she approached the castle (she had chosen this town since it was closer to the royal palace, and she hadn't wanted to venture into the capital) and seen the sheer _size_ of the crowd, she'd done a complete 180 and returned to this town, and had proceeded sulk about plans going wrong for a solid 20 minutes. Then, she'd gotten hungry,

_Can't do work on an empty stomach._

So she'd eaten at one of the quieter pubs on the outskirts of the town (and that in itself had been a hassle; most of them had been closed for the day), and then decided that if she wanted the job done faster she could no longer hesitate and dawdle about calling her associates. As annoying as they might be, she had hired them for a reason.

She pulled out her _jiéshi;_ it hadn't particularly lost a great amount of magic yet, and would be capable for the next feat she would have it help her perform: water communication. 

Water communication was a harder bout of magic to pull off then the more typical fire-messages, but waiting for someone to read what she had to say when she could just have them hear it directly was a hassle, and she was confident enough in her abilities to keep the stone going for long periods of time. The better one was with magic and nature, the less energy they sapped from the _jiéshi._ A simple water call would do squat to her stone.

So after she'd retreated to the safety of a roof - with a rather spectacular view of the town at that - she'd called up an orb of water about the size of her hand, and directed communications at her 'associate'. 

_If he doesn't pick up, I'll use a tracking spell and kill him for wasting my time._

Luckily for her associate, he did pick up; and rather cheerfully to boot. 

_Hey! What's up?_

"Well, _someone_ is certainly cheery today, aren't they?" she commented sardonically in place of returning the greeting. "What is 'up' is that this town is a place forsaken by the beasts and is crowded and noisy and _really_ interfering with the specifics of my job."

_Wait, you're **here**?! I thought you said you were just gonna go straight to the palace _ **_before_ ** _the prince's ceremony!_

"I was... but I faced some difficulty getting out of the kingdom, and I needed to stop here, since I didn't make it in time." She paused, biting her lip in frustration. "There's no end to people who keep _interfering_ somehow; I tried to go to the residence of the person with the most authority here, but I was beat there by some strangers, and I've had difficulty approaching the place ever since. Perhaps they are enemies, and they have warned the authorities not to let other outsiders in, effectively cutting off some of the easier routes we could have taken."

_Woah, slow down, we don't even **know** if we're facing an actual threat or not! And besides the three of us are the only ones who know of this mission, right? I mean, you're the one who commissioned us._

"Yes, and I'm regretting it immensely." 

_Wow, rude._

"Be grateful I'm still paying you," she snapped, "Although at this late date it should really be the other way around; do you know how many _jiéshi_ you two have wasted to get here? Tell that brother of yours to better his magic and stop wasting my stones. He's used more than twice the amount you have."

_ Hey, he's younger, and he can't help that his magic has trouble manifesting. We're not royalty, nor do we have a drop of fancy noble blood. We never even went to a proper school, so you can't blame us if we're not as good with these things as you are. _

"I was referring specifically to _him_ ; you seem fairly proficient with the _jiéshi_ , although I do think that your brain lacks terribly in its own department. In that regard, your brother is better than you."

_ Are you here to heap verbal abuse on us, or was there a reason you called me? _

She gave a small sigh; he might call it "verbal abuse" but where she came from, such harshness was necessary to survive. She had heard far worse, been _told_ far worse, in fact. 

"I'm changing my plans. I thought it would be best for you two to approach someone within the palace, perhaps at the party tonight. Since I can longer get direct contact with the prince, and finding another town will be a hassle, I will go to the party tonight too. But whether or not I choose to come out of hiding depends entirely on what may happen, so I'd appreciate it if you would keep my presence here a secret for the time being."

_Alright... but what do you mean "what may happen"? Did you hear something?_

She hesitated at that. "Not necessarily... but aside from us, this kingdom already seems to be teeming with some... odd guests. The ones who got to the mayor before we did, for starters."

_I only know of those guys... did you hear of anyone else?_

"Well, it's more a rumor, mind you, but..." she paused and glanced around, in spite of herself; as she thought, there was no other presence for miles. "The word is some of the nobles of Xifang, the White Tiger's Kingdom, got tired of waiting. It might've been just me, but when I was approaching the town I thought I detected the presence of several persons with _jiéshi_ in a caravan that was headed in the same direction."

_Why do you suspect the Opal Kingdom?_

"Just call it Xifang like everyone else will you? It gives me a headache, all these long names." 

_Alright... so why do you suspect that Xifang sent people here?_

"Because I know Dongfang has no intention of allowing the other kingdoms to know of their current situation: they're too full of their 'azure dragon pride' to let it be known to other kingdoms that they have a problem. And do you think Beifang would really make such a move? They're all the way in the north; there's no reason they'd suspect _this_ kingdom first. They'd go after Xifang or Dongfang first, if they suspected anyone at all."

_Wait, isn't that dangerous?_

"Hm? How so?" 

_I mean, if you're right about Xifang, or really any kingdom having sent a caravan of travelers with_ jiéshi _then doesn't that smell dangerous to you?_

"Well, I don't see why they would do _us_ any harm."

_ Not **us**! The prince! If so many magic users are smuggling themselves in a travel caravan to come here... then wouldn't you assume the prince is in danger? It's his coming-of-age ceremony!  _

"Well, bravo, you are capable of deduction," breathing out a small laugh, she began to toy with the orb of water, making it draw circles in the air, "But I already thought of that possibility. And while I am certain it's probably right, I also wonder if it would be safe to interfere."

_ What?! But didn't you want to talk to the prince? _

"Yes, but that's assuming this kingdom, Nan Fang, isn't our guilty party. What if Xifang has the right idea?"

_ Yeah, but I'd rather hear the truth myself then let some idiots risk it all by doing something hasty. I mean, aren't you always warning me of the same thing? My brother always does.  _

"Yes, Takato, but that is because you are... simple, for lack of better word, and your mishaps are less of a threat in the face of what we all are dealing with currently. But even so," she snorted, "You're right, unfortunately. I don't want to risk a war starting, assuming my deductions are correct. And if they aren't, so much the better."

_ Well, I'm not sitting around, and I'm certainly **not** gonna let it happen! I came all the way here to **stop** the problem, not watch a new one pop right up! _

"Good for you, then... but as I said, move with caution. Secret plots or no, we still have our own problem to deal with, and I don't want to risk it getting out in the open."

_ You're the boss, captain.  _

"Oh, and Takato," a slight pause, betraying her own concern and hesitation, "Do be careful. I wouldn't be able to get a good night's sleep if my associates were to drop dead on a job I commissioned them for; it would make me lose my appetite for a week."

_ A week? Sheesh that's cold.  _

"What are you talking about? A week without an appetite is one of the worst forms of torture there is, trust me. Any longer and I will surely die." She smiled, knowing the man on the other end wouldn't see it, "Well, I'll end this here. If anything new comes up, contact me. But _only_ if it's urgent."

_ Alright, alright, I won't use a water call to show you any more super cute dogs on the street. _

"Goodbye, Takato. Give Ryu my regards."  


_ See ya, Kanon. _

* * *

He sighed and dispelled the water orb, feeling a sudden wave of heavy exhaustion overcome him. "Well, _that_ was certainly long and confusing." 

Takato glanced with concern at his brother, Ryu, who was watching the plaza of the town from their hiding spot on the second floor of a closed tavern. They'd managed to sneak in using the _jiéshi_ he had obtained at the pawnshop, and were watching the performance (or perhaps it was a contest of sorts?) down in the center of town, below. He seemed particularly enraptured by the current performers: three boys, perhaps around his age, who were dancing to a catchy and bright tune that made even him want to join in on the dance. From what he saw, the three of them were several levels higher than the other performers; if this was a contest, Takato was pretty sure he could see who it would turn in favor towards.

"Looks like fun, huh?" he tried asking, but all his little brother gave was a noncommittal "maybe". 

Fed up, he reached over and began to muss with Ryu's hair, prompting an indignant squawk from the younger. "Takato, what the hell!" his brother cried, swatting away the older's much larger hands.

"That's what you get for being so cold to your older brother," Takato pretended to make a sad face, "I just got thrown a bunch of verbal abuse by Kanon and now you're being all distant and mean."

"You should be used to it by now; she's got a tongue of venom. Just be glad you didn't piss her off _too_ much."

"I never seem to know the fine line between her 'normal' pissed off and the one that crosses the line..."

Ryu laughed at that, before turning his gaze back outside the window. His eyes, Takato noticed, were once again focused on the three dancers outside.

"I didn't tell her, by the way." He had hesitated to bring it up, but he needed to let his brother know.

(To let him be at ease, because for all Ryu's attempts to hide it, Takato knows that the events that had transpired when they first arrived are still bothering him.)

"Didn't tell Kanon what?" Ryu's eyes darkened slightly, but Takato continued.

"I didn't tell her about the kid you mentioned, the one who saw past your magic."

Ryu snorted sardonically, "I'm sure she would've just said it was a lack of magical talent, and if she had done it he never would've seen her."

"Ryu, we both know you have plenty of magical talent. And that's not the issue and you know it."

"Then what _is_ the issue?"

"Isn't it obvious? _No one,_ without exception, should be able to see past the effects of _jiéshi._ It's not an issue of magical ability. _It's not normal._ Are you sure this kid wasn't using magic either?"

"Well, I can't say I'm 100% certain but," his younger brother finally turned to look Takato in the eyes, "I didn't sense anything. Not a trace of magical energy. Y'know how _jiéshi_ is supposed to react to other stones in the same vicinity? There was nothing like that. No indication that Koki, I mean, the kid, had any magic whatsoever, or was utilizing something to that effect."  


Takato sighed. "I'm afraid of what Kanon will suggest we do if she finds out. Knowing her she might even try dissecting the kid, if she doesn't find an adequate explanation beforehand."

"You really won't tell her?" 

He couldn't really place a name on this expression Ryu was giving him; it seemed to be disbelief, but there were faint traces of relief - and hope? - and Takato found himself wondering what on earth was transpiring in his brother's head. Usually he had resigned himself to believing he could never fully grasp the inside of another person's mind simply because he wasn't terribly bright - although Ryu kept telling him otherwise - but he found himself wishing that, at least this once, he could fully understand what his brother was feeling, so that he could help him through it, even just a little.

"No, Ryu, I won't."

There was a small moment of quiet, as if the world had paused itself, before the younger Kyogoku brother turned his head back towards the window to gaze at the plaza, where the three figures were still dancing. To him, they appeared dazzling, their movements fluid like water and strong like the earth, and the red hair in the middle which he had identified as the color of wine, deep and beautiful, seemed to blaze like fire. Finally, he breathed a small sigh through his nose.

"Thanks, Takato."

And while they both knew the owner of the establishment would be returning to the building before too long, they remained where they were, gazes locked on the cascade of color and cheer unfolding below them, like the petals of a glorious flower.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For context since that was confusing, likely:
> 
> Nan Fang (south) is the Crimson Kingdom   
> Dongfang (east) is the Azure Kingdom  
> Xifang (west) is the Opal Kingdom  
> Beifang (north) is the Obsidian Kingdom


	5. Chapter 5

Even after they receive the award, Kaiji can automatically tell that Koki's head is still in the clouds.

Amidst the cheering and the sheer brilliance of the town plaza, his friend's eyes are focused on _somewhere_ , a "not here" he can't really describe. It's a place the red head has often gone to before, but he usually came back, albeit fuzzy and confused. 

But even after they'd performed, and won - rather spectacularly at that, with demands for an encore from the crowd - the center, and technically their "leader" (although he denied it), still had an air of being somewhere far off. Yes, when the lady had presented them with the official invitation to the party, his friend had sent her a dazzling smile that practically made her fall off the stage, but even _that_ had been an unconscious action, something that Koki always wound up doing, anywhere, with no effort, winning him immense popularity although the person in question never seemed to notice. 

During the dance, Kaiji had noticed, even though he'd been caught up in simply following the motions and the rhythm, catching it with his body and throwing it back to the crowd, that Koki had been, well, preoccupied. It hadn't affected his dance in any way; as a matter of fact, he'd never seen the boy move so _gracefully_. Contrary to what he believed about himself, Koki was more skilled than many professional dancers Kaiji had seen perform, on his family's rare excursions to the capital, and there had been no doubt when he and Riku had given him the center position.

But today hadn't been the usual doubt, he was sure of it. _Something_ was on Koki's mind, and it wasn't his usual daydreaming and worrying. 

When they walked back to the tents, amidst adults calling congratulations and kids their age and younger raising voices yellow with envy, Riku turned to Koki and, with concern written across his face, asked, "Are you alright? You're off in dreamland again."

Koki threw them both a surprised glance; at having been found out, or having not noticed his own current state, Kaiji wasn't sure. But he felt grateful to Riku for voicing both their concerns. 

"I'm fine," Koki shot them both one of his usual smiles: not, the dazzling ones that left half the people on the street with their cheeks red, but the sweet, small, grateful smile he always reserved for his closest friends. "That dance just, wore me out, that's all."

 _But you've been wearing that expression since we **started** ,_ is something Kaiji opts to not say. At times like these, he knows no matter how much he prods and pokes, Koki won't open his mouth. 

Riku seems to hesitate, before opening his mouth: "Koki, I know I said I couldn't see that... person... on the roof last week, but maybe my eyes just missed him? I mean, you were kinda blocking part of my view, so if I didn't see him, then that could explain it."

Kaiji shoots Riku a look; he thought they'd agree not to broach the topic. But Riku shoots him back a stare twice as strong, and he averts his eyes in response.

"Blocking part of your view..." Koki laughs. "That's kinda offensive, don't you think? I wasn't taking up _that_ much room."

"Oh, you know what I mean. It's a small window, and you were sticking out your entire upper half. Seriously, you're gonna give someone a heart attack." 

"Sorry _mom_ ," is the teasing reply, to which Riku pouts and pokes Koki in the arm, albeit lightly. Kaiji laughs, but he can see that Koki is trying to change the subject.

 _Nice try_.

"Are you okay?" he asks, gazing into the shorter boy's eyes. "And don't say yes unless you really, _really_ mean it. I'm serious. Any dishonesty, and I will give your bed to the cat and make you sleep on the floor."

At that, Koki laughs, merrily, but then his eyes darken slightly as he responds. "I'm fine, really. The... stuff... from that night was... weird, but it isn't bothering me that much I swear."

"Really?" Riku asks, incredulous, "Because if I was told that I could see a person where my friends couldn't, and got a knife pointed at me, then I'd totally go cry on my friends' shoulders. Ahem, ahem."

"That was subtext, in case it wasn't totally obvious," Kaiji deadpanned, "Riku is saying if you're gonna cry, do it on our shoulders. Although," he paused and gave a mischievous grin, "You might not be tall enough to reach."

"That is **low** , Kaiji," Koki punched him, lightly, on the arm, "And yes, I know what he was trying to say. He wasn't very subtle, though."

"A true and pure person has an honest soul, so they find it difficult to create eloquent sentences that have many hidden meanings." Riku stuck his nose up in the air, feigning indignation.

At this, the three all broke into laughter yet again. Kaiji could feel Koki's conscious being pulled back from the "somewhere else", and, for the time being, felt a sigh of ease escape his lungs. 

Koki wiped a tear from his eye, "Seriously, guys, I'm alright. I mean, yeah, that night really bothered me..."

"Sounds kinda dirty when you put it that way."

"Oh _shut up_ Kaiji... Anyway, it's not, y'know, eating me on the inside or anything. Yeah it was weird, and probably the odds of it happening to anyone are close to zero, but it wasn't... out of this world."

"True," Riku nodded sagely, "There is nothing otherworldly or unnatural at being threatened at knife point from a stranger occupying your roof in the middle of the night, who also happens to be invisible."

"Do you _want_ me to be eaten up on the inside by this or...?"

"We're kidding, Koki," Riku smiled, gently, before placing a hand on his friend's shoulder, "If you're really fine, then we couldn't be happier. But you know you can tell us anything, right? We'll always be there for you."

"Always, huh?" Koki smiled, but Kaiji knew it wasn't one of his usual grins. This was a melancholy look. He wasn't really sure he liked it all that much. "Thanks, guys."

* * *

"It was a spectacular performance, was it not?"

Aoi glanced to his left; Gabriel was approaching, some sort of pastry in hand. He could smell its sweetness from here. 

"It was," Aoi responded, and Gabriel handed him the pastry. Muttering his thanks, he continued, "Although I worry about the victors; children that young should not be attending parties that continue well into the next day."

"They're barely a few years younger than you, sir," his secretary laughed, "I'm sure they'll be fine. They were very talented."

"Yes, I'm sure." Aoi sighed. The events leading up to this ceremony were more hectic than he'd ever bargained for, and not for normal reasons he would've expected. The biggest issue he had been bracing himself for was a dangerous performance, or an exploding decoration, or well... anything party-related. Festive. Ridiculous, but not in a life-threatening (although explosions could be rather hazardous) way. 

He had _not_ expected visitors from Dongfang. Nor had he expected the news they had brought.

 _Why,_ he wanted to ask the gods, _Do problems like these arise at the **worst possible times**_?

"Gabe," he asked, and his friend, noticing the change in his tone, stopped making animated comments about the exquisite flavor of the pastry. "Did you manage to look into that matter from last week? With our strange visitors?"

"Yes, sir," adjusting his glasses, Gabriel reached into his _hakama_ sleeves, and pulled out a sheaf of parchment paper, "According to the town records, there was a travel caravan that pulled into town about three days ago. It was unmarked, and the only other person on it aside from the driver was an old peddler."

"Was that all?"

"Well," A beat of hesitation. "The driver wasn't... feeling well apparently. He took to the medical ward in town four hours following his arrival. We've tried to ask him who else was on board, but, if what he says is true, he _doesn't remember._ "

"And the old peddler?"

"Gone. It's not normal, Aoi-sama, but that's really what happened. The guard in charge of handling any outsiders says she swore she saw an old peddler with the driver when they entered. She wrote a report on it, as you instructed all the guards to do. But no one has seen anyone remotely resembling the person she described, and now she's beginning to doubt he even existed in the first place."

Aoi felt a wave of exhaustion threatening to crush him. "Well," he sighed, again, "One thing's for sure. Our _guests_ were telling the truth."

* * *

_About a week prior_

_"So," Aoi leaned forward, not bothering to hide his distaste at being interrupted during his work, "What brings you three to Nan Fang?"_

_The man he was facing was a bit scruffy, but undeniably handsome. He was wearing a cloak of midnight purple, frayed at the edges, but the clothes he wore underneath, although slightly shabby, were undeniably those of someone who was in the upper rung of society. Or **had been** , judging from their sorry state. His companions were dressed in a similar fashion, although one of them, a man with long hair, was wearing slightly more practical clothing, like the light garb of an imperial hunter, underneath his cloak. Pinned to the first man's top - their leader, Aoi surmised - was the emblem of Dongfang, the Azure Kingdom. This too, was slightly worn: the metal had lost its sheen, and there were very small, almost imperceptible cracks at the edges. _

_"I see you speak the native language," the man said, his voice smooth and warm, like honey, "That saves us some hassle; we're unused to the 'color' naming, you_ _see."_

_"Almost anyone speaks the native language of this continent," Aoi snapped, not content to play catch ball with words. It was late, and he still had work. "State your business. Or do all denizens of Dongfang feel the need to drag on conversations after rudely visiting at this ungodly time of night?"_

_At that, one of the man's companions started forward, only to be stopped by the first man's hand, "Easy, we're not here to fight. Besides, I wear this emblem, but I'm not actually with the people of the dragon. Not right now, anyway."_

_"Oh? Then who might you be, and who are you affiliated with?"_

_The man gave a cat-like smile, "The name's Haru. I'm a traveling bard, and these here are my companions, Sho and Taichi. Say hi, guys."_

_Gabriel, who had been standing in the corner of the room like a stone statue, gave a start. "I've heard that name," he began, slowly, "You're a rather famous traveler who collects the best information, and you've published many records of your travels under that name. I always assumed it was an alias."_

_"Hey, it might be, it might not be. But enough about me," the man casually settled into a chair facing Aoi's desk, "We're actually here on rather serious business, Mr. Mayor."_

_"And I'm still waiting to hear it." he snapped, impatient._

_The man - Haru - stretched out casually, and began to roll his neck, "So, it might be hard to believe coming from a total stranger like me, so I'll start with some context first. You two gentlemen are aware of the current **political situation** of Xifang, right?"_

_"I've only heard rumors," Aoi said slowly, "None of which sound very credible."_

_"Well, I won't ask since that's a whole 'nother story, but..." the man gave a dramatic pause; Aoi could see why he would be a famed storyteller. "Xifang is... violent, for lack of better word. Word on the road is something is going on with the_ jiéshi _supply in that kingdom. And not just there, but in Beifang and Dongfang too."_

 _"The_ jiéshi _..." Gabriel whispered, "God's stones..."_

_"The very same. Now, I know Nan Fang, being the most technologically advanced doesn't really care for magic all that much - what was it, only the royal family knows how to use the stones or something? - but Xifang seems convinced they're responsible. **Why** they reached that conclusion, I have no idea. According to my sources, as well as some investigation of my own, Xifang has been demanding Nan Fang prove themselves not guilty, but... and this really is the biggest mystery, Nan Fang **hasn't responded**. Once. At all. I'd get it if they ignored such outrageous claims coming from a group of people, but this is a whole kingdom we're talking about."_

_"Did they never get the messages?"_

_"That's what I suspected, and that's why I came here. Well, that and another reason. But as I understand it, you, with your position, could easily gain an audience with the king. We want to request your help; we want to ask if you can glean any information from the capital, or the castle, anything at all, that indicates Nan Fang really is ignorant of the situation..."_

_"...or if Nan Fang is guilty," Aoi closed his eyes, and exhaled deeply. It was unthinkable, but he couldn't refute the possibility. "I'm afraid it's not as simple as you think. I'm the youngest mayor of the line; I'm always the last to gain an audience. And I can't collect information as easily as you believe either. The nobles all look down on me, because I am, and I quote, 'of low birth'. They'd never tell me anything, and I doubt I could catch such slips of the tongue easily."_

_"But you can approach the palace, sir" Gabriel leaned forward, "Kanade-sama's ceremony, remember? A week from now, we'll be at the palace. If we can use that opportunity..."_

_"Then that would be a huge boon to us," one of the other men, Taichi, as Haru had called him, piped up, "We'd owe you a favor."  
_

_"Indeed," Haru nodded, "And the second favor I ask actually aligns with that one perfectly well... You have a guard system here, yes? You keep records of travelers coming in and out."_

_"That's correct," Aoi nodded, "Although some of them don't seem to notice; I have them do it in discretion."_

_"Then a few days from now, you'll be receiving a suspicious, unmarked caravan. We passed it on our way here; we used the_ jiéshi _to travel, so we were faster, but we saw it. And we sensed multiple stones within, and well... you can guess what so many magic users approaching can only entail. We'd like you to keep tabs on anyone who comes out of the caravan; where they go, and how long they stay in town. And if they seem... threatening. Dangerous. Potentially homicidal."_

_Aoi felt sharp claws grasp his heart. "You don't mean they'll attack us, do you?" The town wasn't equipped to deal with so many magic users. He isn't sure he could hold his own against even one; no matter how grand their town is, it wasn't built with terrorist preparation in mind._

_"No, but I can think of **someone** ," Haru grimaced, "Someone who'll be out in the open, celebrating his coming-of-age... Someone who'd make a very good target for an enraged kingdom who's rival ignores their demands._ _"_

_Aoi groaned. "Of all the times..." he hissed. "I should warn them... but let me guess, there's no substantial evidence backing this... theory, of yours?"_

_"Correct," Haru smiled, "It's all speculation. I **am** a bard; stories and guesses are my forte. But let me warn you, whether or not they are targeting the prince, Xifang **will** pose a threat to you sooner or later. And not just them. I'm pretty sure if we don't nip this thing in the bud, then all 4 of our lovely kingdoms are about to head straight into one heck of a storm."_

* * *

_Present time_

"They were right," Aoi repeated, pinching the space between his eyebrows and desperately fighting his encroaching headache. "I can't see anything good coming out of any of this."

"All 4 of our lovely kingdoms are about to head straight into one heck of a storm." 

The words had been spinning in his head since then; they'd sounded dramatic, but Aoi knew that, despite not knowing this man all that well, they hadn't been uttered with that intention. It had been a real, raw sentiment, and when he'd looked into the other man's eyes, he'd seen hints of seriousness, as well as a flare of panic. It reminded Aoi of his own eyes, back when he'd first become mayor, desperate to make changes for the better, to see smiles light up on the faces of the people he loved, and would love, in the years to follow.

It was love for one's home that drove someone like that. Just as Aoi loved Nan Fang, those men probably loved their home too, enough to throw away their carefree nature as bards and begin to take actions to a potential threat that could destroy their origins. The place they were born, and would likely return to. One day. 

But for them to return, the kingdom needed to still be standing.

And if he wanted to improve his town for the people, then he needed to protect Nan Fang as well.

"Gabe," Standing tall, Aoi turned his back on the plaza, which was becoming crowded in preparation for the festivities that night, "We can't sit around any longer." Turning to his tall friend, on whom he'd relied on all these years, he tilted his head towards the palace, looming in the distance, "We're going to that party, and I swear by our Vermilion Bird, I'm getting to the bottom of this nonsense tonight."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In an ideal world, I'm sure that pacing and schedules would exist (also I'm sure someone with better writing skills would've written this), but alas! We live not in an ideal world. You would think I could set up a schedule to write seeing as we're all stuck at home, but no, I've got to grab bits of time to write. Small bits. Enough to drive me insane. 
> 
> ...This is why I shouldn't drink coffee you wouldn't BELIEVE the kind of stuff I'd write; you'd all (who all? don't kid yourself) probably think I'm high.
> 
> Anyway have another chapter. Since I kinda gave up on getting things I actually should be doing done, I might write another over the weekend.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I said I'd try to get another one over the weekend, didn't I? Well, I tried. Rereading several fantasy novels kinda booted my brain into action too.  
> Here's to a new chapter and to my overactive imagination.

The palace of the Crimson Kingdom has been, to date, the most renovated of all the royal palaces of the 4 kingdoms. Being a kingdom wholly reliant on trade and technology, the kingdom was easily swayed by change. Over the years, the imperial palace, which had, in the past, looked no different than the other traditionally designed royal palaces of the other 3 kingdoms, had slowly redecorated the interior to emulate a more "social" palace; where there had been endless halls with countless private rooms, there was now a grand hall that served for large gatherings and celebrations. The gardens still maintained their air of imperial grace, and the decorations were still in the fashion of the eastern continent, but the royal family had begun to cultivate more flowers ー rare varieties not usually found in the east ー in the gardens, and the traditional garb of the royalty and nobility sometimes switched between the regal eastern style and the more showy western outfits. And it showed, Koki reflected, as he glanced at the passing people, nobility and commoner alike, as they went to and fro within the palace. While the main hall, which was serving as what the west continent would likely call a "ballroom", was the hubbub of activity, the large gardens surrounding the palace were an attraction not to be missed, and so he, along with several other people, were exploring the halls. Of course, the entirety of the palace certainly wasn't open to public and prying eyes, and so he'd spent a lot of time being careful not to wander into the path of some menacing guard, watching the hallways, sword in its scabbard but still giving off a slight aura of pressure, merely from it _being_ there.

He wasn't a flower expert, but even Koki knew that the flowers he was seeing were of rare quality ー although he did see a few common eastern flowers here and there ー and they were obviously well cared for. He didn't know if it was from professionalism, or if the people in charge of the gardens really loved and cherished flowers, but he could see their efforts had borne fruit ー extremely ripe fruit, at that. 

The entire trip to the palace, after the three of them had won, had been like some sort of hazy dream; he remembered them finding him a good outfit to wear ー more like they'd chosen something for him and practically forced him to wear it ー and then they'd left their houses. They had ridden in a caravan with two other men; the mayor (a rather stoic looking man a few years older than they, who looked like he was either going to kill you or give you a stern lecture) and his assistant (who had looked admittedly less menacing, although he was much, much taller). Neither had spoken much, but they'd congratulated them on their victory in the competition. Kaiji and Riku, not ones to be deterred by the silence, had struck up an animated conversation about what they would do first at the palace. Koki had joined in every now and then, but he couldn't help but get the distinct feeling that the more they discussed the evening, the more... sour the mood between the two older men got. Or maybe that wasn't the right word. It was less displeasure he got, and more... apprehension. As if the two were thinking the opposite of Kaiji and Riku; that this night was going to be anything _but_ the fun experience his friends were anticipating.

Which scared Koki, because he didn't want his friends' night to be spoiled. That was, of course, assuming he was right. He hoped to the gods and the beasts that he was wrong.

After they'd reached the palace, the three of them had wandered around together. He'd noticed, with interest, that depending on where they were inside the palace ー or perhaps outside the palace ー the music would change. When they'd first got there, a string quartet had been playing at the front arches. And when they'd gone inside, there had been a bigger group of musicians, consisting of both strings and winds. In another corner of the palace, they'd seen a man calmly playing a set of small drums, facing the gardens. Here and there, there were people dancing in time to the rhythms, and several times one of the two swept him into a dance to match, and they'd whirled around, making him dizzy from the excitement. However, exhaustion had begun setting in after several dances, so when Riku and Kaiji began to dance by the koi pond, where a woman was playing a set of pipes, and generally began attracting _quite_ a bit of attention, he slipped off to look at the flowers, which he could see blooming. The palace was connected by many walkways, all roofed, and his eyes had been caught by a rather brilliant patch of hydrangeas. 

He'd wandered off, and before he knew it, he was touring all the gardens. But at some point, he'd realized, rather belatedly, that he had completely lost sight of his friends. Panic set in, briefly, but he figured that if he went back inside he would run into them eventually. Besides, they were used to him wandering about in fits of fancy; they would hardly expect him to be kidnapped or something, while they were here. As he mused on this, another explosion of flowers caught his eye, and he found himself flitting off in that direction yet again. 

When he got to this new garden, he realized with a start that, unlike the other ones, this one had been set up around a small pond, with a stone bench sitting quietly at its side. And surrounding the flowers were tall lamps, all glowing with a small light, a color he had never seen before. It was a shade close to white, but depending on the angle it took on creamy, rich hues, then darkened slightly to a soft shade of violet, before transitioning to an even lighter shade of scarlet, then to a soft shade of turquoise. The light it gave off was soft and touched the petals everywhere. In the other gardens, he'd seen stone lamps, but they all had been lit with a small flame, just strong enough to let passerby see where they were going. These didn't seem to be there for that purpose; at the very least, they hadn't been put up with human necessity in mind. They were too tall, and he realized with a start that that was intentional; it allowed each and every flower to suck up the lamps' light.

He drew his face closer to the flower; it was beautiful, with several petals gently overlapping one another, all a pale, ghostly white that seemed to practically shine. _Like diamonds,_ he thought, half in a trance. Under the light, they appeared even more ephemeral, and the flowers gave off such a beautiful light that Koki had the vague feeling that proper lamps probably weren't necessary here; the plants certainly did the job right. When he looked over at the pond, he saw the water's surface, too, seemed to be glowing in tandem with the flowers; their reflection seemed to make the water itself sparkle. The denizens of the palace were lucky, he mused, that they had such a beautiful place all to themselves; surely, this small garden would be perfect for a perfect romantic rendezvous, especially at night, with all the flowers glowing as gloriously as they were.

Then he felt his entire sense of balance nearly break, and he almost toppled forward, straight into the flower bed, but by some miracle (and thanks in part to his own reflexes), he managed to not fall forward. In exchange, however, he stumbled back, and landed on his rear. His sense suddenly seemed to sharpen ー no, they'd come _back_ ー and he realized that he had broken out into a cold sweat. His skin felt oddly clammy, and his chest ached; his breaths were coming short and quick. 

And then that sense of _wrongness_ that he'd felt, on the roof, last week, when Ryu had pulled out the _jiéshi_ came back, but stronger. Much, much more stronger than the tingling sense of disarray that the stone had sent him into, briefly. This was like that, but tenfold. It wasn't just a nagging sensation anymore, he actually felt short of breath, and the lights around him were blazing uncomfortably hot while everything else was coming in and out of focus.

_The lights..._ he thought, _someone turn off the lights..._

He remembered how he'd felt that, as odd and unrealistic as it was, he should have been _offended_ when Ryu had shown him the stone. Now it felt like the opposite; now he felt like _he_ was the offender, and that his role had reversed with... reversed with... with who exactly? 

As if the question were a blazing pillar in his mind, he managed to, somehow, retain enough of his senses to slowly begin dragging himself from the garden. It was slow progress, but he could see the palace walkway getting closer and closer. Eventually, after what felt like several years but likely amounted to only several minutes, he managed to get close enough to the walkway to touch it, and he breathed a sigh. His outfit was slightly dirty, having dragged himself across the grass, and his whole body still felt clammy with cold sweat. If Riku or Kaiji saw him now, he was sure they would both have heart attacks. But the thought, which normally made him smile, only served to add to a headache that he felt coming on.

_I'm going to make it,_ he thought, with no small amount of relief. Maybe he should search for an infirmary once he got inside, he decided, as he tried to prop himself up using one of the walkway pillars.

And that's when he heard, although faint, the sound of screams. Several of them.

_That came from inside._

Immediately, he tried to scramble upwards; if Riku or Kaiji was inside, then they might be in danger. He's not sure, but the screaming did not sound excited. More terrified. He felt cold hands grip his heart. 

However, the sudden effort brought about another spell of dizziness, although it was considerably weaker than the first. The light from the lamps, he realizes, isn't touching him here. 

Eyes closed, he drew a deep breath in ー it had worked when he was younger, constantly panicking at the new sights of the town, when Kaiji and Riku had first found him ー but while it normally worked, he still felt a stinging pain in his head. Carefully, he attempted another step forward... and then froze.

There was _someone_ out there. More than one someone, but not enough to call several. And judging from the prickly feeling he got, he didn't think they were friendly. 

Struck by a strong sense of _deja vu_ he called out, "Who's there?" in a quavering voice that even he knew sounded pathetic.

In the corner of his eye, something moved... and before he had even turned in that direction, his vision filled with a bright light, and he found himself flying backwards.

* * *

The party was in full swing, and Kanade had never felt his spirits soar so high. Yes, because it was technically what one would call his "birthday", but also because his plan to have the lower and higher class mingle seemed to be paying off. Although there were still plenty of nobles who were turning their noses at being approached by the common folk, some of the younger generation of nobility seemed to pay it very little mind; in fact, they seemed genuinely happy to talk to those from a different class than they, and some of them even actively mingled with the other. He felt his heated debates (or, if he was being honest, he and his father talking to each other in business-like tones, raising their voices over the other and generally trying to talk each other down) hadn't been a waste of energy. He felt extremely gratified that now he had attained some small victory over his father, although he was sure the man had never seen it as such anyway. The king was competitive only when it suited him.

He'd rather exhausted himself; he'd spent all morning greeting hundreds, perhaps thousands (he'd lost count) of people, and the crowd had spilled into the capital, annoying plenty of nobles and giving him and his friends a good laugh. Seiichiro had vehemently denied it, but Kanade had seen him quashing down several smiles. Gen hadn't even bothered to hide his glee; people seemed to think that, because of his general attitude towards Kanade, he had a tendency to suck up to important people. What these people didn't know was that respect was only reserved for people Gen got to know very well, and was actually hard to earn. If he found faults in you, he _found_ faults, and his criticisms were as harsh as his smile was angelic. Kanade swore that some of Gen's harsher responses and criticisms actually made the person they were directed to spit blood (and Seiichiro told him to stop exaggerating, but even he couldn't deny the sharpness of the retainer's tongue). 

Honestly, he was blessed to have such faithful and intelligent retainers. They were good companions, friends, and he'd never felt more comfortable around anyone else, save for perhaps his late mother. The sudden memory made his heart slightly ache; and the thought of his mother brought a flood of other memories too, such as his father's sudden... _admittance_ to a sin he had committed, after she had died. The mere memory made his heart burn with black fire ー it was part of the reason he couldn't stand him anymore, and why they never saw eye to eye on things (not that they had, in the past, but at least back then he'd actually rather liked his father).

_Don't think about that,_ he told himself, with a quick shake of his head. _It's your coming-of-age ceremony. Mother would be so happy; she always liked celebrating things like these, even if they weren't good on her constitution._

Just then, as if sensing the small disturbance in his thoughts, Seiichiro was behind him, holding two glasses. His eyes flashed with concern behind his glasses, and he leaned in close so he could lower his voice to a whisper, "Are you alright? Your face is kind of pale, Kanade."

"I'm fine, Seiichiro," he flashed him a smile, before taking one glass and freeing his friend's left hand, "I just was, a little overwhelmed, seeing as the events of the day have been rather hectic."

"And at whose suggestion was that?" Seiichiro countered, but he was smiling, "But of course you would be overwhelmed; you've been entertaining more people than your father does in a full year. Actually, I think you've entertained more people in one night than any other monarch has."

Kanade smiled and, in lieu of reply, took a small sip of the drink; it was fizzy, and bordered on sweet. Trust Seiichiro, he mused with no small amount of wonder, to know exactly what kind of drink would help me feel better, even before he asked for the details. In the distance, he saw Gen talking to a pair of rather serious looking men.

Seiichiro, who had been looking in the same direction, scrunched his eyebrows, "Isn't that one of the mayors? He's supposed to be the youngest in Crimson history, if I recall correctly..."

"Ayanokoji Aoi," Kanade frowned. "He doesn't look like he's having a casual, friendly conversation with Gen. I wonder what happened?"

As if in response to his question, Aoi suddenly snapped his head in their direction, and began to stride over to where Kanade and Seiichiro stood. The tall man behind him, his assistant, Kanade recalled, hurriedly rushed after him, with Gen hot on their heels, an expression of concern on his face. When his eyes met Kanade's, he sheepishly bowed his head in an apologetic gesture, to which Kanade replied with a wave of his hand, trying to convey that it was alright.

"Suzaku Kanade," the young mayor pulled up right in front of the two other men, crossing his arms. He glowered up at Kanade, and he found himself musing that the man in front of him was rather small. "I must have a word with you."

Kanade felt Seiichiro bristle at the man's brusque tone; he didn't seem to be the type to add titles to people's names, and he didn't seem to particularly care about the tone he was using, or who he was using it on. He was the type that Kanade actually rather liked, but Seiichiro loathed. And Gen, too, judging from the hostility on his face when he heard Aoi's no-nonsense tone.

"A word?" Kanade asked, politely, although he could see it would have no effect on the man.

"There is a manner of utmost importance I need to discuss with you." Aoi snapped. "But I'd rather we not do it here. It's..." A small, hesitant pause. "It's a matter of urgency, but I can't risk others hearing as well."

"That sounds rather untrustworthy," A cold smile was creeping onto Gen's face. "Why should we trust you?"

"Because it pertains to the entire kingdom's safety, and to _his_ as well," Aoi jabbed a finger at Kanade, almost accusingly, "I can't waste time like this; if that bard was right, then Xifang is here, tonight, andー"

"Xifang... Opal?!" Seiichiro's eyes widened. "What on earth would they be doing here?"

"Keep your voice down, _please,_ " hissed the tall man behind Aoi. "If they're here and they hear youー"

"Why on earth," Gen narrowed his eyes suspiciously as he glowered at Aoi, "Would they be here? And how do you know?"

"That is why I'm _telling_ you we must switch locations, before it's too late. Are you hard of hearing?" 

"All of you, calm downー" Kanade began, but got cut off when, behind them, he heard a shrill scream.

All 5 of them collectively whirled around ー Kanade and Seiichiro both dropping their glasses with a small smash that indicated they had shattered ー but before any of them could do so much as blink, their vision was suddenly blocked by a mass of shadow, and Kanade saw briefly, a flash of silver, before he felt a sharp pain pierce his side, followed by a brilliant spray of red.

And then everyone in the ballroom collectively began to scream.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So while Koki is probably getting thrashed outside, Kanade probably just got stabbed inside! What a fun evening, am I right? I feel bad for all those guests; I'm sure they thought something grand would happen, not the beginnings of a bloodbath... I say as I write this. 
> 
> This chapter was fun, but I am now woefully aware of my inadequacy in describing things. I had to edit this several times, over the course of several days, and there are probably errors that I will catch even later.


	7. Chapter 7

_Shit, shit, **shit,** we were too late._

As he ran desperately through the palace, towards the direction of the screams, Takato cursed himself internally. Despite Kanon's warnings, it appeared he had acted too late and now, judging from the faint sounds of panic in the distance, he would pay the price in absolute pandemonium. 

He'd thought he had taken her message to heart. He and his brother had painstakingly snuck into the palace, and had gone to great lengths to cover every perimeter for, in mild terms, the "other guests". He hadn't approached the prince because the man in question had practically spent the past several hours entertaining what seemed to be every person in the castle, and his retainers had been no better. So he and Ryu had tried to do some reconnaissance work until the excitement died down, but halfway through they'd wandered some ways away from the main hall of the palace ー and that's when they both had noticed the flow of faint magical energy characteristic of _jiéshi_ coming from... _somewhere_ outside the castle. Then they'd gotten distracted trying to pinpoint it, and everything went downhill from there. 

When they'd finally wandered across an area where the threads of energy were strongest, their eyes had immediately been assailed with a powerful light ー he immediately recognized it as an attack spell, meant to temporarily blind an opponent ー but luckily they hadn't been close enough to receive the full effects of it. However, Ryu had suddenly panicked and rushed out from their hiding spots, leaving Takato feeling _immensely_ confused, but before he could follow his brother, he had suddenly noticed the screaming. It had been continuing for a while, but with the suddenness of the light and their prior distraction, he'd barely noticed it. 

But now he could hear it ー actually, it was now the only thing he could hear ー and he rushed towards its source, relying on his _jiéshi_ to enhance his speed. He must've cut half the time off it would've normally taken to get to the main hall from where he was.

When he rushed into the hall, the scene before him could only be described as "complete and total chaos". Guests were pressed up against the walls, and several guards had rushed in, weapons drawn; already, several were wounded and bleeding. There was a man with curly-ish black hair wielding a thin _jian_ sword facing off against a hooded figure with a much larger blade ー a _dao_ blade, judging from its shape. In the corner he saw the prince, propped up by a man in glasses, who was desperately holding a cloth to his side. When he saw the red stain on the prince's clothes, he felt a small pull of anger and indignation, and immediately flew forward towards the assassin, pulling out his own sword ー an _odachi_ , a sword similar to a katana but much longer in length ー which he had concealed using his _jiéshi_. With no hesitation, he pulled back the sword and swung it directly downwards, aiming for his opponent's shoulder rather than his neck. The man with the _jian_ sword ー likely a retainer ー had widened his eyes at the sudden intrusion, but Takato had no time to make introductions: the assassin nimbly dodged the blow, rolling to the side. His sword struck downward and hit the ground with a sharp and ugly noise, and Takato twisted away just as the _dao_ swung through the air, mere centimetres from his neck. Not letting go of his opponent's momentary opening, he swung his own blade sharply. At this, the assassin jumped backwards, sword at the ready; however, they had reacted a fraction of a second too late; in mere moments, a moderate sized tear appeared on the side of their cloak, followed by a spray of red blood. With a hiss of pain, the enemy retreated backwards, sword at the ready.

"Behind you!" someone, the retainer with the _jian_ , most likely, shouted, and Takato, without turning, _leaped_ into the air. Seconds later, he saw the flash of a sword, swung sideways, pass underneath him. Had he not jumped, he likely would have been cut off at the torso.

The newcomers ー or no, they had been there from the beginning, fighting the guards, but he hadn't noticed them ー numbered four in total; the one who had just swung at him was wielding a scimitar. Two of them both had _dao_ blades as well, and the last of the four had a _chokuto_ blade ー a sword with the appearance of a completely straight katana ー in one hand, and a pulsing stone ( _jiéshi,_ he realized, belatedly) in the other. They all seemed to be scrutinizing him, as if they didn't know what to make of his sudden intrusion.

"I told you." one of them, one of the _dao_ wielders, said sullenly ー the voice was male, and still rather young ー and he turned and, seemingly, glowered at his companions from under his hood. Behind them, several guards lay, battered and beaten on the floor, while only a scant few managed to stand. They were holding out their blades, but seemed to hesitate to attack; and rightfully so, considering the state of their companions.

"Told us what?" This came from another voice, male, but much calmer and more mature. He was the one with the _chokuto,_ and he surveyed the scene before him dispassionately.

"That someone else got here before us." snapped the first voice, annoyance already seeping through his voice. He raised his sword before swinging it down, violently, and a few screams rose from the guests huddled by the walls. Right by his feet, a guard, who had been trying to rise, fell down, blood pouring forth anew. In the corner of his eye, Takato saw Kanade lurch forward, eyes smoldering, but his companion with the glasses held him back, shaking his head. "I _told_ all of you. But did you listen? NO, because none of you _ever_ listen to what I have to tell you!"

The scimitar wielder tilted their cloaked head, "I thought you said that someone from Dongfang was already here, but they wouldn't risk coming out into the open. Isn't that what you said?"

" _No,_ you idiot, _he_ said that, not me. _I_ said that the other kingdoms wouldn't be idle over this, so we should be careful and make sure none of them were here, but they are, and that's that!" The first man jabbed an accusing finger over Takato's shoulder at his bleeding accomplice, who began to stagger over to their side, before the retainer with the curly hair stepped towards them, blade held at the ready. At that, another one of the cloaked figures raised a delighted laugh. 

"Boy, they've got you whipped, huh? Are you doing good over there? Need a hand?" This, too, was that of a male voice, and of the fourth, the third _dao_ wielder. He seemed positively delighted by the turn of events.

"Shut it," hissed the assassin ー and his voice was male as well ー as he glowered at the _jian_ wielder. "At the very least I had an idea of who was here. _You_ had idle speculation, and no evidence to back it up."

"Hey," snapped the _jian_ wielder, all pretenses of being a well-bred retainer dropped, for his tone was suddenly low and fierce, "Enough of this clownery. You all seem to have a very misguided idea about your situation here. Start answering our questions, or I'll cut off each of your limbs and feed them to the wolves."

"Ooh, scary," whistled the scimitar wielder, "But no thanks." He glanced over at Kanade, before sighing. "It looks like we won't be able to complete our _initial objective,_ so I say we all call it a night here? How does that sound? What do you think, boss?"

The man with the _chokuto_ glanced at Takato, the stone still glowing strange colors in his palm. _He's been using magic,_ Takato realized, _but for what?_

"I think..." The _chokuto_ wielder gave a brief, dramatic pause. The stone in his palm began to pulse, the color shifting from a malignant violet to an angry red. "Not." Suddenly, he thrust the stone forward, and a blaze of energy, red and hot, suddenly rose up in front of Takato, threatening to engulf him and everyone else. Takato grasped his own stone, but before he could think up a counterspell to the flames, the entire wall of burning magic came crashing down upon all of them...

And fizzled out, microseconds before it touched any of them. Takato blinked, confused, before taking in the small figure before him. Hit with both parts relief, surprise, and a strange kind of delight, he called out the name of the person who had just saved all of them from becoming charred lumps of meat:

"Kanon!"

* * *

She hadn't meant to come out, but one look at the situation told her it was an emergency. 

The prince, from what she'd seen, had somehow been able to evade the entirety of what normally would be a very fatal attack. However, it had been at the very last second, and she could see that the blade had cut deep; not fatal, but dangerous. If he didn't get treated soon, the wound could get infected, or he would bleed out, and that would be one loss for her and the brothers, and one win for these cloaked jerks. It almost made her come out, but she froze when she saw the sheer _power_ of the five of them; while the first assassin crossed blades with a _jian_ wielding retainer, the other four made quick work of the onslaught of guards. 

She briefly wondered where the bloody _hell_ the king was, but then she looked outside... and froze. 

Strange, malignant shadows were pouring through the palace grounds, throwing party guests aside with ease. They were large, and rather than having a physical form, they appeared to be made of a sort of purple-black mist. She wondered for a moment if they were illusions, but when she saw the very _real_ blood pouring out from the wounds of many already felled victims, she immediately shut down that train of thought. She had no clue when they had appeared: she could have sworn that they hadn't been here when the attacks had first started. Perhaps they had been lying in wait, but she couldn't shake the suspicion that, with the ease which they were throwing their startled victims aside, they had really appeared from nowhere. The screams had come from _inside,_ and if the creatures had snuck onto the grounds then surely someone would have raised a noise of alarm earlier. From what she was seeing, everyone outside seemed to have been taken so off guard, they hadn't even been able to raise their voices in a scream. The king and a handful of guards suddenly came pouring out from another part of the palace, and had begun surveying the grounds and chasing after the creatures, weapons in hand.

Kanon wasn't sure if it was her eyes playing tricks, or maybe just her assumptions making biases, but the shadows resembled large cats: in other words, tigers. The symbolic and literal mascot of Xifang, the Opal Kingdom, worshipers of the White Tiger, Baihu. 

_Well,_ she thought, _it appears I may be right. Which I'd normally be much happier about, but, fancy that, I'm not._

She was getting close to jumping out there, invisibility and stealth be damned, and tearing those assassins a new one. From what she saw, based on the carnage, the five weren't interested in getting answers. They seemed pretty sure that, whatever assumptions they had made, they were in the right. In other words, watching and waiting was not going to prove beneficial in the slightest.

_Not when these absolute **morons** seem to have no intention of asking any questions whatsoever. _

She had been about to jump down from hiding, until she saw her accomplice ー well, _one_ of them ー streaking into the room. With the speed he was going, he may as well have been flying. She watched as he pulled out his abnormally long sword and, without a moment's hesitation, cut at the _dao_ wielder, who somehow managed to dodge despite the suddenness of his intrusion. For the time being, she had thought, relaxing slightly, he seemed to have it under control. Which meant she could deal with the... things, outside. 

However, before she could head outside, she saw the other 4 party crashers advancing on Takato; and one of them, she noticed, had a _jiéshi_ in his palm, glowing a dark and foreboding shade of purple. Judging from its pulse, she surmised that the wielder, whoever they were, had been using it for quite some time. 

_He has to be the source of those freaky cats,_ she thought, with conviction. _There's no one else using magic but him._

But if that were the case, then she had no clue how to make it _stop;_ she had never seen that sort of spell before, and, while she wasn't about to claim herself a complete expert in the field of magic, she had more experience and knowledge than most people her age, and she could say with confidence that she had never seen anything remotely resembling the spell she was seeing outside. That was, of course, if he really was the only magic user in the vicinity.

The 4 seemed to be talking; although the voices were soft, and hard to hear, she managed to pick up tidbits of their words, but could find nothing particularly noteworthy at first. Then one of them said the word "Dongfang" and she froze, her heart almost stopping. 

_Did they find out?_

But judging from their words, they seemed to be talking about someone else entirely; and even if they weren't, they didn't seem to know too much about who they were talking about. 

_Not coming out into the open, huh?_ She thought, with amusement. _They have absolutely no idea._

Then the conversation seemed to halt briefly. For a second, Kanon wondered if the assassins had all been frozen; then, one of them, the one with the stone swirling with magic, suddenly thrust out his hand. Before she even saw the flames erupt, she was already darting forward; the strange, quiet miasma the stone had been emitting had suddenly died down, replaced by a blaze of furious energy. The flow of magic in the room suddenly seemed to elevate tenfold, and she felt, for the briefest of moments, a sensation like needles stinging her body run through her. Thousands of them, too. She was already chanting a counterspell before she reached Takato: her own stone glowed a brilliant, icy blue, and a blast of cold water suddenly rose around her, encircling her and the others, who had all frozen in the face of the rising wall of flames. With a sharp hiss and a brilliant flash, the two opposing spells met head on, cancelling one another out.

"Kanon!"

Takato ー the idiot ー had his face turned to her, a goofy grin plastered across his face, an expression of absolute delight completely at odds with the situation. She sighed and jabbed his forehead, hard, with her index finger. 

"What kind of idiot just _sits_ there with a wall of fire approaching?!" she snapped, glowering at all the dumbfounded men ー at her sudden appearance or the explosion of magic, she couldn't tell ー as they all gazed at her in complete befuddlement (maybe it had been her sudden entrance, then). "Honestly, you fool, at the very least have your _jiéshi_ at the ready before you decide to rush into battle."

"The 'fool' was unnecessary." Takato threw her an injured glare. However, she could tell he was still trying to quash a smile, and she shook her head, before pulling out her saber, which had, up to this point, also been cloaked in invisibility magic, like her. Leveling it at the magic user, who didn't seem all that shocked by her sudden appearance ー although his companions certainly seemed to be ー she threw them each a haughty stare, before asking, her voice commanding, "Who are you people? State your purpose, before I cut you down."

One of the men, the scimitar wielder, seemed to recover. "We could ask _you_ the same thing." His voice wasn't all that threatening, but there was an undercurrent of pressure that likely would've cowed lesser men. 

(In other words, it had no effect whatsoever on her.)

" _I'm_ asking the questions," she snapped. "I think the ones who have been so rudely stabbing and scaring innocents should have to give answers first. It's only a matter of courtesy." 

"Ladies first, and all that," Takato piped up, and, without looking, she jabbed him, hard, in the stomach with the elbow of her free arm. " _Ow,_ what the heck, Kaー"

" _Do not,_ " she raised her voice over his imperiously, "Talk while I'm talking." She gave him another menacing stare. "Go and look at the prince and the others," she hissed, in a lower voice, "Make sure they're alright."

Takato, having seemed to recognize his near-slip up, nodded in assent. Still holding his sword towards the 5 assassins, one of whom was still bleeding out the side and being subdued by the _jian_ wielder, he carefully backed up, until he was right near the prince, whose face had gone pale, and his retainer. The mayor ー from the town she had gone to, she recalled ー had backed away, and was carefully positioning himself between the assassins and several party guests, who were desperately trying to inch away along the walls. His assistant had pulled a sword off a felled soldier and was trying to do the same.

"Wow," whistled one of the _dao_ wielders, "This lady isn't messing around." He threw a glance ー presumably, for their cloaks were still concealing their faces ー at the _chokuto_ wielder, who was scrutinizing the situation before him with an air of disassociated interest. "So, err, what do we do? Should we retreat here, or...?"

"Oh, no you don't." snarled the _jian_ wielder, who now stormed up to his bleeding adversary before holding the blade against the man's neck. "Make one move and I'll slice off his neck."

"By all means, go ahead," yawned the same _dao_ wielder, "If you can, that is." 

"What do you mean byー"

All of a sudden, a flurry of movement caught everyone's eyes, and a Nan Fang soldier, bleeding heavily and gasping, came stumbling inside. "Infirmary!" he shouted. "Someone call the healers, quick! His Majesty had been injured!"

The prince, Kanade, suddenly lurched forward, throwing off his retainer and all but flying past everyone else. His movements, swift for someone who had been injured several minutes prior, startled everyone, the assassins included, into stillness for a beat, giving him enough time to put plenty of distance between them as he rushed to the soldier's side. Behind him, the same retainer ran after him, followed by Takato, sword at the ready, but none of the assassins, despite having recovered from the surprise, seemed inclined to cut then down. The _jian_ wielder hesitated, and his opponent, not letting go of the momentary opening, swung his _dao_ back, forcing him to jump away. The bleeding man, clutching his side, hobbled back over to his companions' side. Kanon debated attacking him, but when she saw the stone in the magic user's palm start to swirl with color, she decided to focus on the bigger threat: him.

"Did you plan this?" The scimitar wielder turned to the _chokuto_ wielder as he made his inquiry.

"Of course," the man responded, sheathing his blade. "All according to our leader's wishes." He turned to the rest of them. "We're leaving."

"What about the other two?" This came from one of the _dao_ wielders, the one who had been shouting angrily earlier. "We're not just leaving them here, are we?"

"Of course not," snapped the other _dao_ wielder, the one who had been mocking his bleeding companion. "What, do you think _he'll_ let us get away with that? I'll go get them."

"That won't be necessary," The magic user held up the stone, which was now glowing a pale sheen, like pearls. "I'll _bring them with us._ Our business is done here."

Kanon leaped forward, swinging her sword with all her might. Her eyes met with the magic user's, and as the lights around them suddenly seemed to increase in strength, she saw, under his cloak, a satisfied smirk, igniting the flames of her rage further. As her vision blurred white, she felt the sword pass through empty air, hitting the space where, mere seconds ago, all 5 of them had been standing. Then the light receded, and they were all gone.

 _Damn it all,_ she thought, vehemently, before sheathing her sword, breathing heavily. Behind her, she sensed the apprehension of the _jian_ wielding retainer, as well as the mayor and assistant, who all seemed to not know what to make of her. 

"Are..." A pause. It was likely coming from the _jian_ wielder, who was currently sheathing his sword, slowly; a sign that he wished not to fight, but judging from the grip on his sword, he would be ready if she suddenly started attacking. "Are you alright?"

"I'm alright." she sighed, exhaustion running through her. "But shouldn't you be checking on the prince? And the king?"

The man nodded, but continued to stare at her. "Can you come with me?"

"...why?" She had intended to, but she was surprised he had asked. 

"You may have saved us, but I can't leave you alone with all these injured people. Please come with me until I, or we, verify you are trustworthy."

"Very well," she sighed, "I'll come with you. But please don't stab me if I so much as try to scratch my neck."

"I won't." A pause. "Might I ask your name?"

"Without giving your own? Does Nan Fang lack proper etiquette?"

At this, the man bristled, but then cleared his throat. "Of course. I apologize; I'm Kaburagi Gen, and I serve as Prince Kanade's retainer."

"Naruse Kanon." she responded brusquely. "And my occupation is a secret."

Behind her, she felt his suspicion slowly grow ー however, she didn't particularly care ー and she slowly made her way outside. 

She hadn't noticed, but when she stepped onto the outer grounds of the palace, she realized that, up until now, there had been sounds of panic, echoing everywhere; hardly surprising, considering the attack. But now it was dead quiet, and below her, as she descended the steps leading up to the castle, she saw a cluster of people gathered around... something. The smell of blood was strong, and it was mingled with another, equally awful smell, like that of a wild beast. Or several. 

In the center of the huddle, she saw the prince hunched over the _something,_ head bowed, and she felt a block of ice drop into her heart.

Lying in the center of the huddle, on the ground, surrounded by a steadily expanding pool of blood and barely breathing, was the king of Nan Fang.

* * *

When Ryu had been investigating the garden with his brother, he had seen, seconds before the flash, someone else there; someone who had gotten there before them. A guest, he had surmised, likely admiring the flowers, and likely not realizing that they were standing in a relatively magic-heavy garden. Then he'd seen a flash of red, and froze.

_I've seen that red hair somewhere before..._

But before he could tell his brother, or even confirm it, they had both been assailed by a brilliant blinding white light: _an attack spell,_ he realized. One that could disorient and even blind opponents, on top of harming them. He felt a rush of panic, which was only enhanced after the light had subsided, and he heard a dull _thud_ that indicated something ー or some _one_ ー had fallen back. Before he knew what he was doing, he had rushed out, his brother's surprised shouts following him. Then, seconds later, Takato suddenly seemed to have noticed something else, for in the corner of his eye, he saw his older brother race back towards the inside of the palace.

When he rushed down into the garden, the first thing that caught his eyes was the sheer abundance of white flowers growing in the gloom; they all shone a brilliant white color, but it wasn't the soft white of daisies. It reminded him of the sheen of precious stones: beautiful, but in a cold, shining way. The lights overhead shone curiously from oddly shaped lamps that, from a normal person's perspective, didn't seem to have any practical use whatsoever: they had been placed too high, and any normal human would have to crane their necks to see them. The lights inside shone softly; bright enough to illuminate the flowers of the garden, but not strong enough to help one's vision in the dark. 

From each lamp, Ryu realized, he could sense the faint pulses of _jiéshi_ and belatedly reached the conclusion that these must be the sources of magic he and his brother had gotten ー as much as he hated to admit it ー distracted by. 

On the ground, a boy ー the red haired youth from the roof ー was struggling to right himself upward. There was a small trickle of blood flowing down the side of his head, and his clothes, which looked far nicer than anyone from the lower class could normally afford, was stained with dirt. Small tears opened up here and there, and one of the sleeves appeared charred: before the spell had hit him, he must have covered his face with his arm, Ryu guessed, as he raced to his side.

The boy, Koki, widened his eyes at Ryu's sudden arrival, before struggling to set himself upward. Ryu carefully knelt down, and without a second thought, began to run his hands over the other's head, checking for the source of the blood.

"What are you _doing?"_ Koki hissed, between clenched teeth. 

"Helping you," he snapped. "Don't move; you're bleeding."

"I can tell," the boy groaned in pain, small tears pooling in his eyes as he shifted his arm, the one with the charred sleeve. "And I meant what are you doing _here,_ in the palace?" Then his eyes widened, and just as Ryu was trying to formulate an adequate response (without telling the truth), he suddenly violently shoved him to the side.

"What the hell are you doing?" Taken aback, Ryu fell backwards on his rear, only to be met with the sight of two thin throwing knives thrown directly at the spot where his face had just been, before Koki had shoved him out of the way. 

" _Shit,_ I missed."

When Ryu turned his head, the first thing he saw was a long, ebony black cloak. The person underneath it was wielding some sort of sword in one hand, and the other was still out in throwing position. Judging from the voice, he was male, and an adult. Behind him stood another person, although _this_ one was distorted and hard to see, as if the edges of him had been thrown out of focus, and Ryu was seeing him from under the water. The only distinction he could make was this person's hair was an extremely light color... perhaps blonde, or even a shade of pink. 

_A distortion spell,_ he realized. _And a really powerful one at that._ Which meant that the person behind this cloaked man was likely a magic user, and very powerful too. Ryu felt the meager remains of the _jiéshi_ inside his pocket give a shudder. Distortion spells were harder to pull off than invisibility; an odd fact, but true. While invisibility meant total bending of light to prevent anyone from seeing you, distortion required more precise handling of light: it required many factors of light, and there were varying degrees of how distorted one could make oneself, meaning the user had to have very good control over light. It was an odd spell, and not too many saw the benefits of utilizing it, save for one reason: despite the more precise handling required, it took a lot less energy from the stone than an invisibility spell. 

As if triggered by his sudden appearance, the lights around the four of them (assuming there weren't more people hiding in the dark) began to pulse oddly. The _jiéshi_ in the lights was reacting to the magic swirling around him. Ryu squinted his eyes at the sudden onslaught of pulsing color, and he heard the cloaked man click his tongue in mild annoyance, as if he too couldn't stand the glare. 

And then, out of the blue, their standstill was broken by a small cry of pain: Koki, who had seemingly given up on trying to stand, suddenly lurched forward, clutching his head, and Ryu panicked, wondering whether his wounds had been more serious than he had bargained for. His breathing sounded labored, as if something was clutching his lungs, preventing him from breathing properly.

"Oh, dear," sighed the distorted figure. "I thought I only hit him with a basic attack spell: perhaps I mixed something else in there, without meaning to."

"The hell?" His companion whirled around, annoyance creeping into his tone. "What do you mean 'mixed something in there'? I just said to knock him out while we investigated, not _torture_ him!"

"I said _perhaps,_ not that I actually _did._ I swear, I don't know what's happening." The magic user's figure shifted for a bit, and Ryu guessed he was probably scrunching his shoulders, or shrugging in response.

Gritting his teeth, he stood, and advanced on the man, pulling out his katana, which he had hidden using magic prior to entering the castle. "Whatever you're doing to him," he grated out, "Cut it out. _Now._ "

The two figures glanced at him, and his blade. Their reactions were almost bored; they didn't seem the least bit threatened by the sword or his tone, and Ryu decided on the spot that he was going to run one of them through if it meant he got answers. Without preamble, he shot forward, towards the cloaked man, who lazily drew his sword... only to swiftly pull to the side, changing course at the very last second, and aiming his blade at the magic user, who, despite appearing warped, did not look to be carrying a weapon. His blade flashed silver, and the magic user darted backwards. Immediately, Ryu rolled to the side as well: the swordsman he had passed had brought his blade slashing down on the spot he had just stood. He recognized the enemy's sword as a _dadao_ blade, large and curved, and he continued to spring backwards through the garden, kicking up flower petals as he went in order to dodge the man's endless swings. However, just as he had managed to take enough distance for a counterattack, he felt a searing pain in his side, and nearly dropped his sword. The magic user was balancing small glowing orange orbs of flame, which he shot off in rapid succession. Unable to move quickly enough to dodge them all, Ryu desperately cut them aside with his katana, sending smaller blasts of fire shooting off at random directions. Praying that they wouldn't set the garden on fire, Ryu slowly backed away from them both, away from Koki, who was still clutching his head near the walkway.

Or _had_ been. Suddenly, Ryu realized that he didn't see the boy curled up on the ground anymore. 

_Had he run away?_

If so, that was a relief; Ryu could only pray he would go fetch help. However, it didn't change the threat in front of him, which was steadily advancing, sword and spells at the ready. Ryu's side ached, and he wondered, briefly, if he was going to die here: in this foreign garden which glowed artificially and coldly, surrounded by magic stones pulsing as if laughing at his misery.

All of a sudden, the magic user let out a sharp scream. The swordsman wheeled around in surprise at his companion's cry, and Ryu saw, behind the distorted figure, the red hair of Koki, who was clutching a knife. It was one of the throwing knives the swordsman had thrown earlier; it was covered in dark blood, and the magic user stumbled forward, seemingly in pain, although Ryu couldn't see where exactly he had been stabbed. 

"You _littleー_ " snarled the magic user, and Ryu saw him reach vehemently for Koki, attacks spells swirling with malignant energy. The boy immediately tried dodging, but his opponent reached out and grabbed him by the wrist. 

"Hold on, don'tー!" shouted his companion, turning away from Ryu and trying to stop the mage. Ryu took advantage of the opening to stab his katana straight into the man's sword arm, and, without a moment's hesitation, he yanked the sword out from the flesh, and swung it again at the mage, praying he wouldn't hit the other boy. The swordsman let out a shriek of rage, and the magic user, momentarily distracted, turned his distorted head just as Ryu thrust the blade forward. With a cry of surprise, he released Koki, and jumped backwards, using his magic to knock back Ryu's sword as he did.

Snarling, the swordsman used his other arm to reach out for the two, but Ryu had already grabbed Koki's arm by then, pulling him behind him. The latter was still clutching the throwing knife, his expression halfway between surprise and horror, as if his mind couldn't comprehend what he had just done. Ryu held out his katana at the two, again, but the distorted figure of the mage was on the ground, short gasps of pain escaping through hissed curses. The _dadao_ wielder had picked up his sword with his other hand, but judging from the way he held it, his stabbed arm was causing him more pain than he had bargained for; enough that it was wielding its effects to the rest of his body. 

"Hey," he hissed, "Red. Koki."

The boy raised his head towards Ryu's face in reply, and he saw that his face behind his red bangs was pale, with a thin layer of sweat covering it. The blood trickling down the side of his face seemed to have dried up for the time being, but Ryu cursed himself for not running off with the kid sooner. _Trust me to run straight into a fight without thinking,_ he berated himself. 

"When I jump for that magic userー that distorted, blurry guy over there," he whispered, "Run straight for the walkway. _Do not_ turn around, no matter what happens, alright?"

"Don't," Koki paused and winced, glowering behind Ryu at their adversaries, who had still yet to move, "Don't tell me what to do."

"This isn't the time and place forー"

"And what do you mean, blurry guy? All I see is a hooded creep and some weird pink haired kid holding that funny magic stone you told me about, the _jiéshi_ or whatever." 

Ryu froze; he felt the two in front of them do the same. That last utterance had been said relatively loudly, and no doubt they had heard it too ー but that wasn't the point. All of a sudden, Ryu remembered ー although he hadn't actually forgotten ー about the real cause of the _strangeness_ when they had first met: the fact that Koki had even seen him in the first place. 

"Does," he rasped, "Does that guy not _look blurry_ to you?" 

Koki frowned, before muttering, "This feels _really_ familiar... no, he's not blurry or anything like that. He's not even bothering to hide his face, which is very stupid, in my opinion, seeing as his friend obviously doesn't want us to know who they are."

The mage had stopped cursing and was staring ー or it felt like he was staring ー at Koki with prickly interest. The cloaked man, on the other hand, had dropped his sword. Before any one of them could say a single thing, however, the head of the cloak suddenly shifted; it reminded Ryu of the way Takato reacted whenever he got a fire-message or a water-call, as if he had just received a notification from thin air ー which he had, but of course to normal people no one had any way of telling that.

There was a small moment of quiet before the cloaked man suddenly grabbed his sword, and Ryu immediately fell into stance with his katana; but no attack came. The _dadao_ wielder merely tucked the sword into its sheath under his cloak, not sparing the two boys a glance, and turned to the distorted figure.

"Looks like they got the job done." He inclined his head. "We're going. Hold still."

"Oh, he's taking us home using _that_ for once, is he?" laughed his injured companion. "He could've just done so from the beginning and saved us the trouble, y'know."

"Shut it. He's got his own reasons, and you're really the _last_ person who can judge him." The swordsman threw Ryu a glance from under the cloak, before the hood turned slightly to glance at Koki. "And I think we're definitely gonna have to explain... _this._ "

The mage chuckled, before waving a blurry hand at the two, tauntingly. "Bye, bye, you two... next time I'm getting _you_ back for stabbing me." The last part was uttered in a low and threatening voice, to which Koki responded with an icy glare. 

"Hey, waitー" Ryu started forward, but suddenly the edges of his vision began to fill with a strange, cloudy sort of white, which grew progressively brighter. He covered his eyes immediately, and when he removed his arm, the garden was empty save the two of them; the mysterious duo had vanished.

Next to him, he heard Koki sigh, before tilting forward precariously; on instinct, Ryu reached out and steadied the other, whose complexion was so pale at this point, he almost looked like a spirit. The white glow of the flowers around them only seemed to make him appear even sicklier, and the pulse of the _jiéshi_ lamps had weakened, casting pale colors about them. 

"I need," the red haired boy whispered, a crease forming between his eyebrows, "I need to get to Riku and Kaiji..."

He decides not to question who they are, instead opting to ask, "Do you know where they went?"

"I don't know," Koki muttered, "But I... I heard screaming coming from inside. If they're there..."

Ryu remembered the sudden panic with which his brother had flown off earlier; had he heard the screams Koki was mentioning? 

"What is even happening anymore..." He shook his head, and carefully slung the other's arm around his shoulder. "Come on, I'll help you inside. You need a doctor, anyhow; you look as if you could keel over any minute now."

That made the other snort a laugh, before shaking his head. "Later," he insisted, "I can see a doctor or a healer or whatever the fancy royals have here, but I need to get to those guys first, before..." He cut himself off, shaking his head violently. 

"I'm sure they're fine," Ryu tried to assure him, but it came out sounding gruffer than he had intended. "If they're smart, they're probably hiding. I wouldn't go in the direction of the... screams, if I were them." _That's assuming they weren't caught in it._ He decides to leave that last part out, but judging from the grim look on Koki's face, he was likely worrying about the same thing. In silence, they reentered the palace, and Ryu desperately tried to navigate his memory for the quickest route back to the main hall. As they proceeded, Koki seemed to slowly recover; his face was still pale, but his breathing no longer sounded labored, and he wasn't clutching his chest every now and then, as if he had heartburn. 

"Hey..." Ryu began, slowly, not sure how to ask.

"Yes?"

"..."

"What?" Koki glanced at him, furrowing his brow. "What is it?"

"... no, never mind. I'll ask you later."

"Seriously, what?"

"Forget about it." He wants to ask ー badly, too ー if Koki had really not seen the distortion spell the same way he had; had not seen it all in fact. Or more accurately, _not been affected by it in the slightest._ And if so, _how._ He recalls his brother's words, how such a thing shouldn't be possible, that it wasn't normal. And yet it had happened twice, and both times it had been the same person.

Truth be told, the reason he had been so caught up in the incident was because he had been more afraid that Koki seeing past the spell was a matter of his own lack of magical talent; that, if Takato or Kanon had tried it, Koki wouldn't have seen them. He knew this discounted the fact that Koki's friend ー the black haired kid ー had claimed not to see him, but it had done little to assuage the concerns and insecurities growing in his mind. So he hadn't paid much attention to why his brother had been distressed when he recounted these events.

But tonight, if what Koki said was true (and it likely was, for what reason did he have to lie?), then he saw past the distortion spell of another magic user. And considering the difficulty of casting such a spell using the _jiéshi,_ the man had likely been a very skilled mage. Koki had seen past the spell of someone like that. 

Something else was bothering him, though, but he couldn't pinpoint it. He stole a quick look at the boy, who had recovered enough to quicken his pace a little, allowing for Ryu to walk faster as well. As they made their way through the palace, Ryu realized that the palace had gone unnaturally quiet, as if holding its breath. Up ahead, he suddenly saw several figures dart out a large room ー the main hall, he realized belatedly ー and were rushing outside. Exchanging a quick glance, they both made their way over to the commotion, when suddenly, Takato appeared, looking frazzled and pale. 

"Ryu!" he shouted, rushing over. "Oh thank the beasts, you're alright."

"I'm fine... but what about you?" Ryu glanced at his brother's sword; there were splatters of blood on it, but their owner appeared relatively uninjured. Breathing a sigh of relief, he suddenly remembered that Koki was still there, and felt a sudden rush of embarrassment, although he wasn't sure why.

"I'm alright, but," Takato paused to look at Koki, "Who's he?"

"I... found him, in the garden we were investigating. He was attacked by these two weird guys."

"You both, too?!" His brother widened his eyes in shock. "Wait... there were more of these guys?!"

"It appears so," a new voice interjected, and recognizing the source of the voice, Ryu craned his neck to look past his brother and saw Naruse Kanon grumpily holding her own blade, sheathed, her normally well set straight hair in slight disarray. "Hello, Ryu, I'm afraid you missed the party."

"What happened?" This came from Koki, timidly, as if he didn't know what to make of the sudden onslaught of new faces. Ryu noticed, with a surge of guilt, that his face was still pale, and the blood from his wound had dried and matted his hair with an even darker shade of red than its own. 

Kanon glanced at Ryu, one eyebrow raised, and Takato jumped in to answer, likely sensing her reluctance to open her mouth to a stranger. His face was a mesh of guilt and solemness, at odds with his normally lighthearted personality. He felt a rush of apprehension and fear for the answer.

"These strange beasts attacked the palace at the same time those assassins did. Kanon was right about there being danger at the party," Takato shook his head, anger slowly seeping into his voice. "But we completely messed up who they were targeting. Even though it should have been _super obvious._ "

"You mean... it _wasn't_ the prince...? Then who...?"

Takato released a deep, deep sigh, frustration and bitterness radiating from his tone as he spoke the next words:

"Their target was the king of Nan Fang, the Crimson Kingdom. And they succeeded. They attacked with these strange shadowy beasts, according to Kanon, while they distracted everyone else inside and made them think they were trying to kill Kanade, and while they were at it, one of the beasts managed to wound the king, who had gone out to deal with them. Just now, the healers reported that the king's wounds were too deep, and there was some kind of poisonous miasma in them that they couldn't extract."

"In other words," Kanon interjected, her voice even more bitter, "The king of Nan Fang is dead."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writing action is hard. I bow my head to writers who can write sentences teeming with action packed excitement.  
> New chapter, and I finally managed to write a much, much longer one! Over 5k words I'm so happy with myself (although the chapter is far from perfect).
> 
> Anyways, thank you very much for reading up until now(and continuing onward, hopefully)! If you have time, please leave a kudos, and/or a comment! I hope you have a nice day!


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 100 hits!! I'm so happy... I've never had so many before! 嬉しいー！急に日本語でごめん。。。嬉しすぎてつい。。。  
> I wanted to update earlier but I've been getting these weird on and off migraines, likely from the recent heat outside. My room is like a toaster oven in the hotter seasons. 
> 
> Please (hopefully) enjoy yet another chapter!

_A few years ago, in the Crimson Kingdom_

_Several weeks after Kanade's mother had passed away after having collapsed due to her illness, his father had called him to his study to talk about a "serious and grave matter". A matter, he claimed, that would surely make Kanade furious with him, but something he thought his son should hear. "As king and as your father," he had said, gravely, "It is of utmost importance I tell you this, with the fullest honesty." Kanade, still a young child, hadn't really been able to fathom the extent of the "serious matter", only resigning himself to believing his father would give yet another one of his important speeches about the importance of "moving on and accepting the fleetingness of life, no matter how painful". He didn't want to hear it, but a summons from his father was also a summons from the king, and he had no choice but to accept and follow._

_To this day he sometimes regrets having accepted to listen so passively._

_His father's study was grand; large scrolls adorning the smooth walls, side by side with pillars of a dark jade. The windows behind the wide writing desk were tall and imposing, but intricate patterns wove over the glass, almost like snakes, and gave the appearance of barring the windows from ever opening. Prompted by his father, he sat on the other side of the desk, on his knees, properly, like his mother had taught him, and waited for his father, who hadn't yet taken a seat, to begin._

_For a long moment, his father stared out the window, arms folded behind his back, in the posture of one deep in thought. He could feel his father's hesitation, his groping about in search of the right things to say, and Kanade, belatedly, was struck with a fierce apprehension for what he would say next._

_"You know I loved your mother," the king began, still staring out the window. "It was a formal engagement, set by my father, but it was a happy one. She was kind, and strong ー not just in spirit but in body too, although that might be hard to believe for you ー and she was always making the people around her smile. All of my family loved her instantly; she was from a low-ranking noble's family, but her talents caught my father's eye, and he believed her the perfect candidate to rule by my side when we were older."_

_"You were always telling me how wonderful Mother was, even while she was alive," Kanade said quietly. "And I was the luckiest person in the world to be raised by someone as strong and kind as her." He paused, carefully choosing his next words, trying to not make them sound as cutting as they did. "I don't need any reminding, Father; there was no one else in the world like her, and I will always be grateful that the gods allowed me to be raised by her, however fleeting the time was."_

_"Yes," his father sighed. "I have always been aware of the great respect and love you had for her... which is why what I'm about to say next will, I fear, make you scorn and despise me forever._

_"Before I had become engaged to her, I had a... good friend. She wasn't a noble; she was a servant's daughter, and when I was a few steps before adulthood, I became acquainted with her. She was a very forward person, and she often had no reservations speaking her mind; she often mocked fun at the uptight nature of the nobles and royalty, who scorned her and her father as below them. But I found myself drawn to her, although doubtless she found me rather silly, too. We became close, over time. Closer than a normal member of the royal family and a servant's child would ever normally become."_

_Kanade wondered if the odd, scorching feeling in his chest was a result of the stuffiness in the room; he was, he realized, becoming short of breath as his father continued to talk._

_"Just as our... relationship began to escalate, my father announced he had found me a suitable candidate for marriage. We both knew that being together in an official manner was unimaginable ー at that time, anyway ー so we both understood at some point we would have to cut it off. But by then I had already done something terrible, something I couldn't fix, and when I learned of it I knew that, for the rest of my life, my sins would follow me until I died."_

_"Your..." Kanade swallowed, thickly. "Your sins?"_

_His father continued to stare out the window. "I should have admitted to my wrongdoings earlier. Only then would I have spared both of them: both her and your mother. When our formal engagement was announced, she suddenly quit her job at the castle and left the kingdom, leaving me a letter telling me as much... along with the announcement of her pregnancy."_

_Kanade didn't remember when he had stood up, but suddenly he was no longer sitting in front of the desk, hands folded peacefully on his lap. His father still wouldn't look at him._

_"She didn't tell me where she was headed, only that she had a good friend from childhood outside the kingdom who would help her, and that she would be fine. She told me to be happy with my betrothed, and, when we had a child, to raise them with love and care. And she told me to never tell either you or your mother of her, not because she feared retaliation or either of your ire, but because she desired to see you attain happiness. She told me to do whatever I could to be a good husband and father; I could no longer be considered completely faithful, so at the very least, she wanted me to support you both."_

_"So," he rasped, "So your love for Mother was just... an obligation? You only did it out of the guilt you felt for impregnating another woman and casting her aside to marry Mother? You fooled her?"_

_His father didn't look at him, even then. Kanade suddenly felt a rush of fire hot anger, as if the Vermilion Bird itself had taken over his body with its white-hot flames._

_"And you're telling me now... why? To shed your guilt? Now that Mother is gone, you no longer feel obliged to hide your, your **sins**?! Are you telling me all this to fulfill some sort of self-satisfaction?" Breathing heavily, Kanade slowly walked around the desk until he was almost next to his father. "Do you feel better, then? Now that you've told me? Now that Mother is dead and you don't have to hide anymore?" He laughed, shakily. "You do, don't you? That woman is gone, fled the kingdom long ago, and now Mother is dead, and by telling me, you hope to shed some of the guilt? Don't you..." _

_His breath caught there, and he shook his head, frustration and fury bubbling up like magma. "Don't you know any shame? Doing all this... after Mother's death... is satisfying yourself **all** you ever think about?!" _

_Even after Kanade had said his fill ー although even after the fact he found there was still more he had wished to say ー his father remained impassive. No, that hadn't been right. He'd been composed, but Kanade could tell that his words had hurt his father, and while his usual self felt no small amount of guilt, he couldn't deny the massive feeling of pleasure he'd gotten when he'd known his words had wounded the man more than either of them had expected._

_Since that day, Kanade had ceased to show any respect for his father; not in a rebellious, outwardly rude manner ー for that arrangement wouldn't have worked for either of them, seeing as they were the only direct family the other had (both of his grandparents, his father's and mother's, had passed away of old age) ー but rather in a cold, composed way. He continued to treat the other with cordiality and kept his manner polite, but it was obvious in his tone and words that he sought no fatherly love from the king any longer, and he himself had no intention of showing him the fond, loving respect of a son that he always had up to this point. They disagreed on more and more topics, to the point that, without his intention, half the kingdom began speculating that he was actually very ambitious and planned to wrest away his father's crown at the nearest opportunity._

_This void between them continued for several years, and neither had ever found a way to discuss the topic again._

* * *

_Present day_

Nor would they ever find an opportunity to even broach the matter.

The memory had seized Kanade several hours after the party; it had been a whirlwind of activity, with several healers carting off the king's body while the imperial soldiers rushed about to find and gather the wounded, or search the perimeter for their unexpected "guests". One of the strange newcomers, _ー_ their "saviors", as Gen had sardonically referred to them as _ー_ the girl named Kanon, had informed them rather dryly that, given the extent of magic they had used in the main hall, she doubted they had teleported to a spot remotely _near_ the palace. 

_If they're smart, that is._ She had spat that part out almost vehemently, with a little more poison than her elegant looks suggested she could give. _Considering the mess they've made all for the sake of their **assumptions** then I want to say I highly doubt it, but that's wishful thinking._

He hadn't understood half of it, but then again, he hadn't been able to stay focused the entire night. Seiichiro had, several times, insisted he go to rest, but each time he had shot down his attempts. It was almost sunrise when he and Gen, this time very firmly, had told him to rest. 

"Put it bluntly, Your Majesty, you look as if you haven't slept in a week," said Gen, his eyes and tone brooking no argument. "It would be much more helpful to us if you rested; that would be one less thing for me and the others to worry about." A very Gen-like argument, he thought, and after laughing halfheartedly, he finally caved. 

They had insisted he simply rest in his room, but he had gone to the infirmary where his father was being held. Despite warnings from the healers _ー_ and several pleas not to look, it was too horrible ー he had repeatedly told them to leave them with his father. In the end, the head of the infirmary had agreed, on the condition he stay not too long, and rest properly afterwards. 

Once they were all gone, he had pulled back the pure white sheets covering his father's body. Contrary to what the healers had been saying, his wounds had been cleaned to the point that they were no longer the ugly purple gashes he had seen outside, but large scars, stitched and barely noticeable now that they had changed his clothes for him: his wedding robe, Kanade realized belatedly. It was the same as when his mother had died; in Nan Fang, the tradition for couples who died separate deaths was that they wear the wedding outfit at their funeral, so when they reunited in the underworld, they would be in the outfits that had tied them together. A very romantic, if slightly morbid, tradition. The king's face had been cleaned, and there was no trace of blood on him any longer. He looked almost as if he were sleeping very peacefully, wounds and stitches aside. 

However, no amount of work masking the scars had been able to hide the horrible purple miasma that had left strange bruises on the king's body: the clothes were about the only thing hiding them from the eyes of the world. Peeling back a sleeve, Kanade grimaced and tried not to wretch at the horrible bruise-like markings marring the skin; they looked almost poisonous, and gave him the impression of terribly infected wounds. Those monsters the guards had described were likely the cause, but none of the healers had been able to even take a guess at what kind of poison had taken him. 

_If it was even poison._ He had heard one of their "saviors" ー the youngest looking one, a boy with slightly wavy, short dark hair ー say in bitter tones. As if he knew something about it. But Kanade had been too worn out, although he hadn't dared to admit it, to press the boy any further; he had gone off with the healers, at any rate, his arms supporting another boy, this one with wine-red hair and a pale complexion. 

Staring down at the body, he gently put the sleeve back in place, rearranging the ceremonial outfit so as to cover the strange marks even further. "I hated you," he whispered, softly. "I wanted you to apologize. Was it so hard? To look at your son and apologize for what you had done? What was I supposed to do with that confession, if you didn't bother apologizing for it?"

His voice began to tremble, and his vision blurred, but he continued, "What did you want to do when you told me? Did you want someone to know? To accept it? How was I supposed to know that? And how could I have possibly accepted it? I was only a child, and you _knew_ how much Mother meant to me.

"It wasn't even the fact that you had another child born of an affair that upset me, nor was it that you loved another woman other than Mother. It was that you never apologized for what you had done, not once. You stood there and told me the story of your guilt in your grave tones, but did you say you regretted it? Did you say 'I'm sorry' even one time? Couldn't you have at least done that? If you couldn't bother to apologize to Mother when she was alive, couldn't you have at least done it to her soul? I don't care if you didn't apologize to me. But couldn't you have tried? For Mother? Even if you loved another before her, didn't you come to love her as the years went on? I always remember the warmth with which you praised her. I remember you telling me to listen to her carefully, to help her when her illness hurt her. You said we were a family, and we had to help one another. You said you felt like the luckiest man alive, to be blessed with us. Did that not amount to anything, for you?"

Kanade realized that, at some point, his tears had begun to fall down his face, sliding over the curve of his cheeks, and he felt a sting of pain in his chest. His father's face, eyes closed peacefully, seemed to gaze back at him, as composed and calm as the day he had admitted to his son his guilt. Covering his father's cold hand with his own, he choked out,

"I hated you so, so much after that. But you were the only family I had left."

* * *

"Well," Ryu heard Kanon give another of her huge, overdramatic, and somewhat condescending sighs. "This night has been shaping up to be just terrible."

"Technically, it's morning." Takato piped up from where he sat. The three of them were in the king's study, along with the two young retainers who had never left the prince's side, the mayor from the town they had all stopped in, and his assistant, the tall man with glasses. The entire time they had sat in silence, he had repeatedly pushed them up on his face. 

"I didn't ask for your two bits, Kyogoku." snapped Kanon, annoyance steadily creeping into her tone. 

Before Ryu could jump to his brother's defense ー with a few choice words for his employer at the ready ー the mayor, Aoi, gave an even larger sigh than Kanon's. "Can you all kindly cease your foolishness? We've been subject to listening to you flirt and bicker for almost an entire night, and we have barely been acquainted. While I appreciate you having saved us, there is only so much we are willing to tolerate, especially under such stress."

Ryu half expected Kanon to jump on Aoi and maybe chew him out, too, but to his surprise, she faltered, instead sinking back into the chair they had given her. "My apologies," she murmured, "I've always had a... unproductive way of handling stress."

"Yeah, she takes it out on me." muttered Takato, but Kanon didn't jump on this, and Ryu nudged his older brother gently. With a sigh, the taller man ran a hand through his already thoroughly mussed up hair; a habit of his that popped up when he had no idea what to do. Like now.

The retainer with dark hair and glasses ー Kuon Seiichiro, he'd called himself ー suddenly looked up; he had had his head slightly tilted to the side, hand near his mouth, in a posture of deep contemplation. Now he glanced straight at Aoi, who, seeming to have recognized himself as the target of his rather intense gaze, stared back just as calmly. 

"I think," the young man spoke, slowly, "Now would be a good time to discuss what we each know, or, rather," He paused and looked around the room, surveying each of their faces in turn. "What _you_ all know. Gen and I understand very little about what exactly has transpired tonight, and I don't want to force Kanade to calm down too soon; I want to hear the facts and give him some time. Do you understand?"

Ryu nodded his assent; to his side, Kanon gave a soft, "Of course." and Takato gave a firm nod of his own. Aoi merely made a noise of assent, and his assistant, Gabriel, inclined his head in agreement. Having gathered their approval, Seiichiro murmured his thanks, before turning back to the young mayor.

"As I understand it, Ayanokoji-san," he began, "You came here on an urgent matter that you wished to discuss with Kanaー His Majesty, in private. Could you tell us what that matter was?"

"Just call everyone by their names," Aoi responded, "And yes, I did. I needed to warn the prince that his life was in potential danger, although I found myself with that warning a little too late."

"You mentioned Xifang. Why did you assume it was them?"

"It wasn't my assumption." The mayor cut off, frowning. "I received a small band of odd visitors one night, prior to the ceremony, telling me to be on guard for the next week against any, and I quote 'potentially homicidal' threats. Of course, I was confused at first. But then the visitors explained to me that they had been on their way to Nan Fang when they passed a carriage radiating a strong aura of magic. They suspected _jiéshi_ was being used, naturally. They told us to be on guard against them, and that they suspected they were assassins sent from Xifang for, well, _troubling_ reasons."

"And those reasons were?" This came from Gen, who had taken up position behind Seiichiro.

" _Political trouble,_ according to my guests. I'm sure you all are aware that the political situation in Xifang..."

"Is a literal mess? Like a massive-storm-ripped-through-the-entirety-of-the-kingdom mess?" Takato suddenly piped up; he had been silently listening, but had decided, to borrow Kanon's phrase, to "throw his own two bits in".

"Yes," Aoi sighed, "Exactly. The monarchy there is unstable, for one thing, and the nobility is split into factions that follow the... _current_ monarch, those that follow the previous ー although for all we know he might be dead ー monarch, and those that don't follow either. It's an unholy power struggle there; if you can't make it to the top, or keep your place on the food chain, they will, quite literally, throw you to the tigers. I've only heard rumors and I don't want to go anywhere near the place.

"My guests explained to me that with the recent political struggles of Xifang, they've been on edge. Testy. And rumor has it that they've been experiencing a shortage in _jiéshi,_ something about their mines not being able to provide them anymore. According to them, Xifang has been blaming Nan Fang for _quite_ a long time. However, and this sounded the oddest to me, personally, it seems no one in Nan Fang has responded. Not the king, nor any of his advisors. We thought the messages must not have reached them, but Xifang, with their nerves frayed and everyone trying to kill the other person at their dinner table, immediately took that as an admission of Nan Fang's guilt, somehow. At least, that's what my guests speculated. So they asked me to be on the lookout for any suspicious persons, but the only clue we had slipped out of our grasp before we could thoroughly investigate."

Ryu froze; next to him he felt Kanon do the same. Takato, being ever the one to immediately blurt out what he was feeling at any given moment in time, burst out, "That's _stupid!_ So they killed the king of Nan Fang because they felt _insulted?!_ I mean, come _on,_ at least they should've investigated more!"

"That's only going off of what his guests know," interjected Kanon, staring hard at Aoi, "Who were they? I can't believe you would believe such a story from a complete group of strangers had they perfectly hid their identity... and something tells me you're not easy to fool."

Gabriel, rather than Aoi, responded to this, "We'll get to that in a minute, but first we need to explain what happened after the caravan reached town." He coughed, rather nervously. "It was... disconcerting, to say the least."

Seiichiro glanced from Aoi to Gabriel with a small nod, an indication to continue, and the latter cleared his throat before explaining. "When the guard checked the caravans ー there are quite a few, but not enough that we wouldn't be able to investigate them all thoroughly ー she noted that one of them had just a driver and one passenger; an elderly man. That was it. But then the driver suddenly said he felt dizzy and unwell, and by the time the guard had seen him off to the medical ward in town, he was as pale as a sheet and almost barely breathing; we all panicked. We thought he'd been poisoned. But then he slowly began to recover, so when we went to question him we had decided that the old passenger with him seemed the most likely suspect... but when we questioned him about it, he said he _never had given a ride to any passenger._ He swears he came alone; he can't recall a single detail, nor does it seem like he was lying. In fact, the mere mention of the old man made him queasy, as if struggling to remember was physically painful for him, and then all of a sudden, the guard who had seen the old man began to experience the same symptoms. The last time we questioned her, she was beginning to doubt her memory; she said maybe she'd been confused and there had been no old passenger to begin with."

The silence after this lengthy recollection was so huge it was almost deafening. Kanon chewed her bottom lip: a habit of hers, Ryu had learned, that she did when she was trying hard to remember something; in this case, most likely, the repertoire of spells in her head and what would produce such an effect as the one Gabriel had described. Takato shot Ryu an uneasy glance; he was likely making a similar face. 

"It could be a spell of memory mixed with a disguise spell..." Kanon spoke, slowly, rolling each word around in her mouth. "Only that would take a considerable amount of power from a stone, no matter how skilled the mage is. Or maybe they used the disguise spell just to get into the town, used the memory rewrite spell to make anyone not associated with them forget their appearance, and eventually their existence, and then either kept the disguise since it was so useful or dropped it for a new one..."

"They likely utilized a new disguise," Gabriel piped in. "Even if we never saw their face, the guard was still able to describe him for a while, before she began to feel ill and forget. So they likely expected that, and probably 'dropped the disguise for a new one', as you said."

Gen gave a huff of breath, "This is all so utterly confusing." he groaned. " _What_ did they stand to gain from doing such a thing? That's what I don't understand. I can see the logic in them waiting until His Majesty's ceremony. I can see why they would fool everyone into thinking they were threatening his life. But what was the point of such an intricate spell? They could've simply erased themselves from memory as soon as they entered the town, before hiding, or they could have come straight to the capital if they were so powerful. There was _no point_ in confusing the driver or your town guard; honestly, it sounded to me like extra work they made for themselves." Annoyance had steadily crept into his tone, and Ryu found himself bemusedly glancing between him and Kanon; they sounded oddly similar when irritated.

"That's what we want to know," Aoi shook his head. "There was nothing in that town that should have sparked their interest."

Ryu felt a small nagging at his brain when he heard those words: _there was nothing..._ Had there been something while he was there? He didn't think there had...

Seiichiro, who had resumed his earlier posture of being lost in thought, shook his head with a resigned sigh. "We can't sit here and speculate on their motives until we have all, or at least more, of the facts. Which leads me back to our earlier question: who were your guests, Ayanoー Aoi-san? Did they seem trustworthy to you?"

"To be entirely honest I didn't trust them at all," Aoi shrugged, his voice deadpan, and Takato gave a small snort of amusement. "Until everything they told me turned out to be somewhat true. But they did give me their identities."

"Which were?" Kanon prompted, head tilted at an inquiring angle.

"They apparently happen to be a rather famous set of travelers ー or I suppose bards would be the more appropriate term here ー and they went by the names of Haru, Sho, and Taichi. They gave no family names, but I didn't need them. They came from, or I suppose you could say they _originated_ from Dongfang."

Ryu saw Kanon stiffen out of the corner of his eye; it was imperceptible, and only he, and likely Takato, too, had noticed it. 

"Haru..." Gen sounded out the name, slowly, eyes narrowed. "I've read some of his works. Many critics praise his novels for their poetic use of sentences and the intricacy with which he weaves even the most harrowing of tales, but I've always found them to be a bit too carefree for my taste."

"Carefree?" This from Takato, who had turned his eyes towards Gen.

"It's... loose. For lack of a better word. Like the author has no concerns and could care less if the kingdoms could crumble, so long as he gets to continue seeing new sights. It felt like he was," Gen paused, hesitating. "Mocking the readers for having ties to their home, I suppose. And that made me upset."

"Well, then his novels aren't really speaking his true feelings, then," Aoi was calmly fingering the long sleeves of his kimono, "He seemed pretty inclined to care for the future of the kingdoms. He certainly wasn't fooling around when he said they would be dragged into a mess far larger than it's worth."

"Carefree authors aside," Kanon interjected, "Did he... did he say anything about what's happening in Dongfang?" Her voice was slightly shaky, and Ryu wondered what kinds of speculations and questions were running through their heads as they stared at her when she made her inquiry.

"He hasn't been there in a while," Gabriel spoke, gently, "But according to him, they're witnessing the same problems as Xifang. Beifang too. Their _jiéshi_ supplies are being interfered with and are getting cut off, but they have no clue as to the cause."

"And we likely won't be able to hear from then in a while, not with this mess." sighed Seiichiro, shaking his head.

"Actually..." Takato glanced hesitantly at his brother, and then at Kanon, licking his lips nervously, a rarity for him. "We... might be able to help you with that on our end. Since it, well, pertains to the information we're about to share with you. Right, guys?" He glanced at his companions nervously; Kanon only sighed and shrugged, her indication for him to continue, and Ryu shot his brother an encouraging nod. Seemingly satisfied, Takato turned back to the other four in the room, who were all staring at them rather suspiciously.

"See, well," Takato slowly and awkwardly began, "We're here on a secret, not necessarily official mission from the Obsidian Kingdom, Beifang." He smiled a little nervously, "Pretty late for the introductions, but yeah. I'm Kyogoku Takato, this is my younger brother Ryu, and this is Naruse Kanon, an associate of ours. Or our employer, I guess."

"And," Ryu interjected, "We're actually here on that exact issue the mayor there just mentioned."

* * *

In one wing of the infirmary, Koki was sitting upright in one of the beds, reserved for patients, with a bandage wrapped around his head and around his arm, which had only suffered mild burns from the weird burst of light that had hit him, back in the weird garden. When he had asked one of the healers about it, she had said it was a garden that the late queen had planted and tended to, although no one really knew its purpose, or even what the name of the flowers was. Then she had rushed off, likely to tend to another injured patient, and he felt sort of guilty for having held her back with his questions. 

Riku and Kaiji, thank the beasts, hadn't been injured; they had managed to escape with several other guests into the palace, and had barricaded themselves into an open room. Lucky for them, the weird monsters outside hadn't been all the interested in the party guests; however, when Koki remembered the feeble figure of the prince slumped in front of a great pool of blood, head bowed, and thought of the king's body being mauled and then carted off, he immediately felt a horrible wretch in his gut. His friends had been more shocked and concerned with Koki's own state; he had, after all, greeted them with a flimsy wave when Ryu had carried him into the infirmary, where they had been searching for him, before promptly collapsing from both the blood loss and the throbbing of his head, which still hurt despite the strange garden being far behind them. Koki had labeled the garden as the source of the sudden downward lapse of his well-being; at least for now, seeing as he really had nothing else to go off of. It _had_ been a rather mystical and strange garden, anyhow.

After he had come back to his senses, the first thing he saw, to his surprise, was Ryu. 

"I asked your friends to give me some time to ask you questions," he grinned, albeit rather weakly. "They refused at first; they didn't want to leave you with a complete stranger, not when you were passed out and weakened." The words took on a friendly, teasing edge. "They're super protective of you, huh?"

Koki laughed, weakly. "It's because I'm a klutz..." he murmured. "Ever since I was a kid I did the stupidest things and I was... I guess... completely defenseless. I didn't think about danger, or risks, and I sort of always stepped into the melting pot without a single concern."

Ryu threw back his head and laughed at that, and for a second, Koki forgot he was injured and in the medical ward at the royal palace; it was the first time, although this was really only their second meeting, that he had seen the other boy laugh. His cool and serious features had given him an almost threatening appearance, but when he laughed like this, eyes crinkling softly and head thrown back, he looked extremely kind. 

His laugh was nice, put simply. Koki felt his cheeks get hot and searched around vainly for what to say next. 

However, Ryu suddenly stopped laughing (which Koki refused to admit left him feeling slightly regretful), and turned back to the redhead, face serious once again. He seemed to be searching for the words to phrase what he was about to say next; he kept opening and closing his mouth, and when he finally spoke it was with trepidation.

"Hey," he stopped, and then paused, as if searching for his next words, "Why were you in that... garden in the first place?"

Koki shrugged before responding, "No reason. I was exploring the palace and I started searching through all these flower beds and stuff the people here planted, and then I wound up there. It was really pretty, so I wanted to get a closer look." 

"Alright..." Another hesitant pause. Koki felt annoyance gnawing at him, but before he could snap and demand Ryu to simply _ask_ whatever questions he wanted, the latter followed up with, "Did anything weird happen in there? Aside from the... y'know." He gestured with his hands towards his head, likely indicating the cloaked man and his companion (whose deal Koki still didn't get; why hadn't _he_ been disguised or covered?). "Did you see or notice anything odd?"

He frowned. "No... although those lamps struck me as a bit funny. They were glowing different colors and it wasn't like any of the other gardens I'd seen so far."

Ryu nodded, before looking into his eyes, intently, a question still there. "Anything else?"

This time it was Koki's turn to hesitate. He didn't know how to explain the sudden bout of... oddness, or pain, or whatever that had been, and he didn't know if he should even tell Ryu, anyhow. Yes, they had both somehow saved the other in the garden, but he didn't know how trustworthy he was, even if he had turned out to be surprisingly kind on the roof, fancy daggers aside. And he hadn't, he realized, told him about the oddity he had experienced with the _jiéshi_ thing he had shown him, how it had thrown him into slight disarray. He hadn't even, he thought, with a jolt of guilt, told Kaiji or Riku. 

"No," he murmured, casting his eyes down to his injured arm; there were faded burns, but not enough, he figured, that would leave permanent scars in the future. "No, there wasn't. I visited a pretty garden and got knocked out for it." At this, Ryu winced as if this were his fault somehow.

"OK, but if you remember anything... or think that you may have seen something odd, then, well," The other boy rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "I'll... probably be in this castle for a while. Well, maybe. Hopefully the others are in a more talkative mood..."

"The others?"

Ryu ignored him and continued, "But I'm sure with everything going on, they'll have to be." He glanced down at Koki, eyes passing over his wounds, before he turned away. "Anyway, rest up. Your friends are probably bursting with anxiety that I still haven't left." He smiled, although this one was a little crooked (but still nice, Koki found himself thinking). "Sorry that you got wrapped up in this mess."

Koki blinked before giving a smile of his own. "Why should _you_ apologize? You didn't blast me for stopping to sniff the flowers. Nor did you make me bash my head into a stone pillar, or burn my arm. You _saved_ me so," He paused, embarrassment, belatedly, setting in. He could feel his cheeks turning warm and likely red. "So, um, thank you."

Ryu blinked at that, before offering a slightly wider smile, although Koki could see his cheeks too were faintly pink. "Well, you did save me back there too, so, well... thanks." With that, he quickly began to walk off, leaving the latter feeling immensely confused and embarrassed (and slightly fuzzy too, on the inside, although he couldn't guess as to why). Several seconds after Ryu had left, Kaiji and Riku had come rushing over to where Koki sat, showering him with questions that ranged from concerned ー Are you OK? Does it hurt? ー to slightly upset ー Why did you wander off on your own? What were you thinking? ー and judging from their contents he guessed Ryu had given them an abbreviated version of what had transpired in the garden last night. 

"Hey," Kaiji asked, slowly, his brow slightly scrunched. "Who was that guy just now, anyway? He came carrying you in while you were bleeding, and then he told us to leave you with him for a few minutes to ask you questions."

"Is he a friend?" Riku's question was a little kinder. "He seemed pretty nice, although his face was kinda scary when he came in."

"Err, well," Koki's eyes wandered from one face to another, "He's not a 'friend'; we've only met twice. The second time was last night, and well, the first time..." He tried to quirk his mouth up in a small smile, but he could feel he hadn't quite succeeded. "On... the roof? Like about a week ago...?"

"The roof..." Riku mouthed, silently, while Kaiji's eyes widened. Koki immediately threw his hands up in front of him in a defensive position, but it was too late: Kaiji darted forward and grabbed his shoulders fiercely, and proceeded to violently shake him. 

"The _roof?!_ You mean that crazy guy who pulled out a dagger on you?! The one who was skulking about near the attic window and threatened you with a weapon when you saw him and who also _happened to be invisible?!_ That guy?!"

"Kaiji, stop, stop, he's still injured!" Riku grabbed his blonde friend's arms in a panic, wrestling him away from Koki, whose eyes were spinning. "Seriously, calm down... And Koki what the _actual fucking hell?!_ " The other two boys nearly jumped at that; they had never heard their normally peaceful and passive friend swear so intensely before. "So the guy that was carrying you while injured was also the one who threatened your life?! Are you OK? He didn't _do_ anything to you, did he?"

"Guys, I'm fine, I swear," Koki quickly began shaking his hands in front of him in panicked gestures. "Yes, he did threaten me a week ago, but he was actually not that bad, and when I was attacked in the gardens he's the one that saved me so really, it's all good." At Kaiji's dubious glare, he added, "Honest. It's true. He only wanted to ask if I'd seen anything weird in the garden, but I didn't, and then he told me to get better and that was really it!" 

His friends were still shooting him skeptical looks, but in the end they didn't press the matter, although Kaiji declared he wasn't going to let him be alone with "that guy" anymore, unless he himself found Ryu to be fully trustworthy. Riku had calmed down much quicker than Kaiji, but he had nodded along with the blonde's declaration, and Koki immediately regretted not having worded that statement earlier a little better, or having worded it at all.

"Still," Kaiji sighed, "I can't believe they..." He stopped, glancing around nervously, before lowering his voice. "I can't believe they _killed_ the king. It doesn't feel real at all, and we were _here_ where it happened... but I still can't believe it."

"And on his son's coming-of-age too..." whispered Riku, sympathy lacing his voice. "He must feel terrible."

"Does that mean he's gonna be the king now? Since he's the only heir the king ever had...?"

"I guess... I mean the king never had any other children so now that he's... gone, the throne needs to be taken up by _someone,_ and the prince is the only candidate for the job..."

Koki shook his head. "I don't know what they plan to do, but..." he glanced at his friends, "What do _you_ guys want to do?"

The two shot each other a glance. "What do you mean, Koki?" asked Riku, gently.

"I'm..." he licked his lips nervously, before continuing, "I'm staying here, at the palace. I know lots of the guests are leaving today, or have left already, but Ryu ー that's the guy who helped me, by the way ー said he would still be here, and I need to talk to him." 

"Why?" Again, this came from Riku, in his ever-gentle voice.

"Because there's been weird stuff happening around me ever since he showed up, and I... I want to figure out what's going on. I got attacked, and I stabbed a person," He cut off, clenching his hands and folding them on top of his stomach. "And I... I feel involved now. Even though I have no clue what's going on it still feels... _wrong_ to just leave now, not after everything.

"But I can't force you guys to stay behind with me. I know I'm not really good at staying on my guard, or thinking really deeply, and I know I've always been kinda hopeless without you guys, but that doesn't mean you have to stay with me, not when things could get dangerous. So, if you wantー"

Before he could finish the sentence, Kaiji had shoved one of the pillows into his face, while Riku simply smacked him over the head. Giving a muffled sound of protest, Koki indignantly tossed the pillow back at the two of them, to which they both gave a merry-sounding laugh. 

"You idiot," Kaiji grinned. "No way in hell we're letting you have all the adventure while you're up here. Go back to the town without you? You're not getting rid of us that easily."

"Sorry to say, but he's right, Koki," Riku piped up, "We happen to have a very long history of going along with your antics, and you have had a very long history of being followed around by us, whether you like it or not. We're certainly not breaking that record here. So, we're all staying. The three of us. Like it's always been."

Koki tried his best to quash down the smile fighting to make its way to his face, but it was a losing battle. "Thanks, guys," was all he could manage before he had to bury his face in the sheets to try and hide his happiness, to which the two teasingly tried to pull him up so they could see his embarrassment.

In the end, one of the healers scolded them for being noisy, and the three spent the rest of the morning finding new ways to entertain themselves with bedside tangerines, fresh and imported from the capital.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eating delicious Japanese food while writing is fun. Hooray for karaage! (What do Americans call it, fried chicken?) Lots of motivation. Keeps me energized. Helps me with my writing too. Delicious food makes you feel better.
> 
> Once again, thank you for reading. Please have a wonderful day, and many more.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is a little shorter than the previous two, since I was writing it right after Chapter 8, and I was having trouble figuring out where to put the divide. Hopefully it wasn't too inconsistent. 
> 
> Alrighty, here we go, with more reveals and info sharing!

Beifang, the kingdom of the north and therefore the farthest from Nan Fang, which was positioned in the south, was, of the four kingdoms, the most seclusive and therefore somewhat of a mystery. The history of Beifang was brief; they were formerly a small settlement that had been led by several powerful warriors, and for the longest time, had claimed the title of "strongest" of the four kingdoms after their first official crowning. No one knew how they had made contact with Xuanwu, the Black Tortoise, and formed a contract, not when they had still been, of the other four territories, the "least settled". While the other territories had been settling land agreements and leaderships, thus leading to their acknowledgement, the north had still been somewhat in a disarray, although the history texts barely touched upon its contents. However, considering Xuanwu was formerly a mythical beast well-known for their strength, the other kingdoms had somewhat accepted the contract as inevitable. 

But, Seiichiro thought, the mystery of their contract aside, the history texts of Beifang had failed to touch on many parts of their history; several monarchs had remained unnamed, and while Beifang was well known for its abundance in _jiéshi_ ー directly the opposite of their southern counterpart ー it had never been stated that the kingdom had seen rise to many notable mages, nor were there too many texts surrounding the mysteries of the stone produced from its greatest source. The other kingdoms had long since accepted the kingdom for its secret nature: so long as they never waged war or caused troubles over the border, the other three kingdoms had always been happy to leave them alone.

The two brothers would be, he realized, the first denizens of Beifang he, and likely many others in the room, had ever laid eyes upon. Their wardrobe wasn't all that odd, but, considering they had been here for quite some time, it would be sensible to assume they had traded it in for clothing that would allow them to blend in with the other citizens. However, even before they had revealed their identities, Seiichiro had had a sneaking suspicion that they would be from such a place foreign to him; however, he hadn't expected the answer to be the Obsidian Kingdom itself. He'd have been less surprised had they claimed to come down from the mountain range in the northeast, or the swamps in the southwest. 

However, the girl was even more of a surprise; but in her case, it wasn't that her appearance and bearing had suggested anything particularly exotic, or different, like the brothers. If anything, Seiichiro had been _positive_ that his guesses of her place of birth would be on the mark... and none of those guesses had included Beifang. 

_If anything,_ he mused, _she looks like she could be..._

"Denizens of Beifang?" Aoi had narrowed his eyes to slits, interrupting his train of thought. The man had crossed his arms over his chest, and his tone was stern, but he could still hear the surprise in the young mayor's voice. "This will be the first time I've ever met the people of that kingdom. You all have an overly secretive way of conducting your business."

"And the top brass likely intends to keep doing that until, I don't know, forever," Takato shrugged. "They can't help it; it's not that they don't want to ask for help, like Dongfang, but more like being shady and secretive is so deeply ingrained in them they can't shake out of it."

"The 'top brass'?" Gen raised an eyebrow slightly. 

"We're not with the officials of Beifang," This interjection came from the younger brother; his tone, despite being of lesser age, betrayed a deeper maturity than his looks suggested, and was grave, at odds with the snappish tone he had used when he had been bickering with their female companion when they had first convened. "We're from the lower class, but we're not uninvolved with the problem. If anything, we saw the start of it, and we've been stuck ever since."

"it's why I hired them," Kanon added, her voice smooth and refined. She tucked a strand of her hair back behind her ear, before continuing, "I was in the area when the problems with _jiéshi_ first arose; we had already been acquainted by then, and all three of us decided to do some investigating on our own. We knew the officials of Beifang wouldn't hide such an important incident from their citizens, but we also knew they wouldn't contact the other kingdoms; hence, why we decided to embark on our 'unofficial mission'." She inclined her head towards the younger brother again, an indication to continue.

"Our family owns a small _jiéshi_ refinery," Ryu began. "Which is basically as the name suggests; our father took the raw _jiéshi_ that the miners in town had collected and spent days slowly refining it so the pure magic energy radiating off it wouldn't, well, incinerate someone, for example. It's happened a lot in the past; some idiot thinks collecting raw _jiéshi_ is a good idea, sneaks into the mine, and the next day we find their dead body with _some_ kind of indication as to what kind of magic blasted them to the next world. It's not pretty.

"Anyway, our dad worked with _jiéshi_ a lot, since the town we grew up in was actually a miner's town; every morning, you would see a crowd of men and women leaving the town gates with their tools, and they would come back around dusk with their harvest. Of course, you can't mine _jiéshi_ all at once, so it wasn't an impressive amount; but it was enough to get by and satisfy the town's daily quota. We were doing fine as I was growing up, and thanks to the exposure, Takato and I learned some magic despite not being nobility or royalty, or even having mage parents. Takato is a lot better at the magic than me, though."

Ryu stopped for a bit, seemingly lost in thought, before resuming, just as steadily as before. "One day, though, my parents noticed that, slowly, the miners in town were disappearing. It took a while, because it wasn't noticeable; every once a month or so, we would think, 'huh, so and so from the house over hasn't been seen recently, I wonder if something happened?' and that was it. But because of the infrequency of the disappearances, it took a long time before we realized almost half the town had gone missing.

"When we realized what was happening, we all panicked. The mayor immediately sent for the capital, and the next day, a bunch of officials came down to investigate. A lot of the testimonies said the same thing: the disappearances had been so infrequent, no one had noticed. The one thing they all had in common was the last time anyone had seen any of the missing people, it had been when they had been about to leave for the _jiéshi_ mines. So the imperial army sent out a small group of men to investigate the mines, and..." Here he paused again, running his tongue over his lips nervously. His older brother, seeming to sense his hesitance, took up where he had broken off.

"The guys from the army didn't come back either. All of them, at the same time. The officials immediately realized this confirmed that the cause of the disappearances was indeed because everyone missing had gone to the mine; it wasn't coincidence that they vanished when they did. Immediately, a few mages and _jiéshi_ experts were deployed, followed by the officials; they weren't going directly to the mines, but they wanted to investigate if there were any magical disturbances from a distance."

"They thought they would be safe," Ryu spat bitterly. "They thought as long as they didn't approach the mine directly they could find the cause, and then use it to find a solution to bring everyone back."

"But they went missing, too," Takato continued gravely. "A few mages who stayed behind tried to use water communication spells to establish a connection with the missing; see if they were alive, anyhow. Most of the calls didn't pull through, but a few did, only no one was on the other end. Like they managed to react to the message and used magic to receive it, but couldn't do anything beyond that."

"Did they hear anything?" This came from Gabriel; next to him, Aoi had uncrossed his arms, and his hands were tightened into fists over his lap. Beside Seiichiro, Gen was chewing on his lip, expression tense.

"Not really," Takato sighed, running a large hand through his hair. He had already done so several times over the course of their little meeting, and his jet black hair was thoroughly mussed. "All they heard were weird background noises: wind whistling, the slight crunch of gravel... Oh!" At this, everyone in the room collectively gave a little jump in their seat. "Yeah there was a weird noise, actually. Like the howl of a beast...? Or something similar. It was really faint, and I was there when the mage heard it, but even she didn't know what to make of it."

"I didn't hear it," Ryu piped up, "But there are a lot of strange creatures in the north; descendants or relatives several times removed of the mythic beasts, maybe. Takato said it didn't hear like any of those, though."

"Yeah, no, if it sounded even remotely familiar I would've realized it, I'm sure. And the mage would have as well; the capital is close to the mountains, so they would _definitely_ know if it was one of those... but it wasn't. Neither of us recognized it. It was... _super_ creepy. Listening to it gave me actual chills, even though it was faint."

Seiichiro closed his eyes; he could feel Gen staring at him in slight concern. He suddenly thought of Kanade, and wondered if he was still with his father's body, or he had gone and rested like the two of them had told him to. The prince had a tendency to push himself too hard, and was blindingly oblivious to that side of himself. It was an endearing quality, he thought with sudden fondness, at odds with the bleak air in the room, but it caused him no end of worry. 

Shaking his head to clear his thoughts of the prince (who made up a good portion of his thoughts anyhow, although he forced himself not to acknowledge it), he looked at Kanon; her demeanor and way of speaking had given him the idea that she was the impromptu "leader" of this odd crew. "So," he began calmly, "To make sure I understand this correctly; there is a _jiéshi_ shortage in Beifang, and on top of that the miners have gone missing. Everyone who goes to search for the vanished also winds up adding to the number, and on top of that, there are very few clues with which you could have proceeded to start your investigation. Am I misunderstanding any part of your story?"

"No," Kanon shook her head. "That is, in essence, the gist of it."

"Then I would ask you to explain to me," he responded calmly, "Why, of all the kingdoms, did you choose to make contact with Nan Fang? Geographically, we are the furthest from you. I can understand why you would hesitate to ask Xifang, but what of Dongfang? If they are experiencing a similar issue, pride or no, would it not be logical to assume they would be more sympathetic? While they have a history of refusing to admit to weakness and seeking help, they are, of the four, rather well-known for being the most politically agreeable if the opposing party makes a plea for assistance." He pushed up his glasses, which had slid, slightly, down the bridge of his nose. "Why did you choose the Crimson Kingdom, the kingdom of the south?"

Here, Kanon hesitated; he could almost see the gears in her head spin, and Seiichiro realized why he had looked at her and had the premonition the two of them wouldn't get along.

She was the opposite of Kanade. Where he would speak almost immediately in response to someone's call, with the most blinding smile, she was obvious in her mistrust and hesitance to share information. Even though she wanted their cooperation ー whatever _that_ entailed ー she still hesitated to trust them with even the most basic of information. Kanade, even if he had reason to mistrust someone, was better at gaining someone's willingness to cooperate. Kanon didn't seem to mind much in that regard. 

"There were," she started, voice stiff. "Several reasons. One of them being Nan Fang's advanced technology; we hoped that you would have something that might help us investigate the mines without sending any living persons anywhere near them... something that would allow us to assess the threat without endangering any more people."

Gen shook his head. "I can't think of any such contraptions that would do the things you suggest. Yes, we may be technologically advanced, but we've never had need for such a... specified piece of equipment before."

"Even if you didn't," This came from Ryu, who had leaned forward, eyes glittering intensely. "This kingdom had the best resources available to _make_ one. That was one of the biggest reasons; we needed someone with the tools and knowledge." Takato and Kanon both nodded in agreement.

"And your other reasons?" asked Aoi. 

Both Kanon and Ryu went silent at the inquiry, throwing glances at one another, as if gauging whether the other would start speaking. To the side, Takato, who had been chewing his lip, suddenly threw up his arms as if in frustration, causing Gabriel to nearly leap up in fright. 

" **GAHHHH,** I can't _take_ this anymore! Come _on_ guys, we need their help, don't we? Let's just _tell_ them already! Our friends who went missing don't have the leeway to worry about protecting our personal secrets and shit and _besides,_ in this situation, it doesn't mean much anyway!"

Ryu rolled his eyes, but he shot Kanon a glance that Seiichiro took to mean silent encouragement. The young woman gave a sigh in equal parts exasperation and resignation, before turning back to her audience, who had all been rather taken aback by the tall man's sudden outburst.

"Alright," she sighed, again. "We came to Nan Fang, because, yes, we couldn't trust Xifang. But we also couldn't trust Dongfang, because, well..." She took a deep breath. "We had reason to suspect _both_ of foul play in the disappearances of the miners in Beifang."

The silence after her proclamation was so huge one could have heard a pin drop, or even a feather. Seiichiro could see Aoi's eyes widening, and he saw Gen's face slowly twist in rage, and he prayed he could keep his cool before he did the same. 

"Wait," Gabriel held his hands up, confusion plastered across his features. "Correct me if I'm misunderstanding you, but you suspect Dongfang AND Xifang are guilty of the disappearances in your kingdom?"

"Yes," Kanon replied, calmly, "That is what I am saying."

"Does that mean they are responsible for their own _jiéshi_ shortages? Or are you suggesting that the shortages are nothing but a hoax?"

"Wait," interjected Gen, his eyes black with rage. "Does this mean they murdered Kanade-sama's father for _nothing?!_ If they are responsible then _why_ was Nan Fangー"

"Hold on," Takato held up both his hands in a placating gesture. He shook his head several times. "We said we think they're responsible for the _people_ disappearing, but we can't say the same for the _jiéshi._ " Everyone turned to look at him, and, taking this as his cue to speak, the man continued,

"We didn't know this until we started investigating, but it turns out Dongfang has been dealing with this problem for almost two whole years ー yeah, I know Mr. Mayor, it's unbelievable, stop looking at me like that ー and they've been dealing with it through trade. Lucky for them, they're not as reliant on the things as our kingdom was, but it doesn't mean they didn't suffer. There's spots in nature that thrive thanks to the energy given off by these things ー like, no matter how bad of a storm rips through a forest, the life is preserved almost perfectly ー and they started to wither away. Then strange creatures began popping up here and there throughout the kingdom following the shortages, although no one could give a perfect description of what they looked liked, and that's when Dongfang realized they had a massive problem."

"Of course," Ryu added, "Several people suggested to the officials they ask Nan Fang and Beifang for help ー well, more like they suggested Nan Fang because no one really _trusts_ us ー but the monarchy refused."

Seiichiro was well aware of Dongfang's prideful nature, but he was shocked that they would still refuse assistance, not in the face of a problem that had been continuing for, if the three were to be believed, two years. Then again, the family that had taken up leading the kingdom had a history of prideful monarchs, so even if he was shocked, he found that he couldn't quite say with certainty the idea wasn't plausible. 

"Alright," Aoi sighed. "So Dongfang had _jiéshi_ problems _before_ anyone else. That I can understand. But what of Xifang, then? How did you know of their problems?"

Kanon turned clear, unwavering eyes upon the young mayor at his inquiry; Seiichiro could see the two brothers exchanging glances, communicating something silently. Taking a deep breath, she responded,

"It's because I was there, in Dongfang, on the day Xifang attacked us out of the blue and demanded we assist them in their research to uncover more _jiéshi,_ " Drawing herself up, the young woman continued, "I'll be borrowing Takato's little turn of phrase, but it's a pleasure to meet you all. My name is Naruse Kanon, and I was the former apprentice treasurer for the kingdom of Dongfang."

* * *

 _Ah ha,_ thought Gen. _I knew it._

Although Seiichiro, and Gen himself, hadn't known this, both of Kanade's retainers had had a sneaking suspicion from the start that, while the brothers likely were from Beifang as they claimed, the girl herself wasn't. It was in the way she carried herself and the subtle differences between them; she had, from the beginning, felt more prideful and haughty, but not in an obnoxious manner. Indeed, it had felt like a deeply ingrained personality trait, something she herself was likely not aware of. Seeing the way she interacted with her two companions, it had become increasingly clear.

Even Aoi and Gabriel seemed relatively unfazed; they had clearly been thrown a little off guard by the abruptness of the statement, but they hadn't looked all that shocked. Indeed, Aoi even murmured, "I thought her demeanor felt a little familiar..." under his breath, although that went unnoticed by the girl in question, who had instead opted to move right on with her story after her announcement.

"About six months ago, the capital was suddenly attacked by warriors under the flag of Xifang... but something was off. The group was too small for a proper army, and they appeared to be already very battered, as if they had fled from something. We had no clue what was going on, but we subdued them for the time being and had them locked away. We thought maybe the monarchy in Xifang was trying to tempt us into war, but with the _jiéshi_ problem we really didn't have the leeway for that.

"The monarch sent a message to Xifang, offering negotiations for claiming back their captured warriors... but their response shocked us. According to the reply from Xifang, those men were, and I quote 'traitors to the new monarch, and had thus left the kingdom and had tried to incite a war on their own'. It was a plot devised by one of their many broken political factions, although none of us knew of this at the time. They told us they would be willing to leave the punishment to us, and in exchange they wished to discuss an 'urgent matter that both Xifang and Dongfang have been struggling with'. This is when we learned they, too, were having trouble with their _jiéshi_ supply." She began to toy with a lock of her hair, twirling it between her fingers. "We thought it sounded like a good deal; the monarchy wanted to punish the troublemakers who had caused disarray in their kingdom, and if the other kingdom was seeking our help, then we could move forward with the problem. They were fine with it," she snorted, "Because it was technically Xifang who asked first.

"However, as research progressed, I noticed that more and more of the people involved went missing, until all that was left who knew of the specifics of their investigation was those of the Xifang monarch's closest circle. Several people in Dongfang had just... vanished, but no one searched for them, and the castle didn't launch an investigation. That's when I found out they'd been sending people to the mines in Dongfang against their will; before the disappearances, the mines had simply _stopped_ producing _jiéshi,_ not caused people to disappear. It was only after research began that I realized there were several people being sent off and not coming back... and no one knows what happened to them."

"After she met us," Ryu murmured grimly, "We found out that that was around the exact same time the same problem popped up in Beifang. Only, we don't know if our _jiéshi_ shortage was just natural, or if we haven't been getting them in supply _because_ of this... research, the two kingdoms are collaborating on."

"My parents," Kanon continued, closing her eyes, "Tried to protest. My mother especially; several of her friends had vanished. It didn't do them a whole lot of good, and they were both relieved of their servant duties in the palace the next day. They were more than happy to leave; they didn't want us to be the next victims. But," Gen saw her hands clench tightly. "One of my friends, a girl training to be a warrior, was among the missing. Several of my schoolmates too. I couldn't continue to be silent in the face of this... madness, so I began investigating the palace under the guise that I was an ignorant fool who simply wanted to continue my training. I gathered as much information as I could... but it wasn't much, sadly. One day I tried to follow the embassy from Xifang to the mines ー because somehow _they_ always came back fine ー but I got caught."

"And that's where we met her," Takato piped up. "We had left the town ー our parents are used to us going on these excursions and stuff often, although they were more against it than usual with all the stuff going on ー and were trying to find a way to investigate the disappearances. We'd been traveling towards the south, a little towards the east, and that's where we ran into her.

"We managed to run away from those guys, and she told us pretty much everything she's told you guys just now: the research, the shortages, everything. Then we decided we couldn't trust either the west or the east, so we had no choice but to travel south down to Nan Fang." The man winced. "Man, it was a _serious_ pain in the ass; we had to fight bandits, these wild beasts tried to steal our food like, six times in a row in one week, and Kanon nearly made a waterfall explodeー" "I thought I told you not to tell anyone about that." "And all other sorts of crazy things happened. We formed a plan while we were traveling; we needed to talk to the prince in Nan Fang; one of the informants in the town we stopped at had heard of Xifang and Nan Fang's correspondence, and Xifang's demands, so we were afraid that maybe the king was in on their research."

"Well, he obviously _wasn't,_ seeing as they killed him," Aoi leaned back with a sigh. "Which I still fail to see the logic of." 

"We do, as well," Kanon shook her head wearily. "It's the one part of their plot ー that, and why they stopped in your town for so long ー that I fail to understand. And _I don't think,_ " she added, shooting Takato a look, "That it was because they were insulted. That kingdom is a mess, but they're not so childish."

Gen frowned; something about the story was off. "What about those attackers?" he asked, "They were the... catalyst, I guess you could say, to all of this; what happened to them?"

The three companions suddenly shot each other dark looks; Ryu's face was stormy, and Takato had a serious look crossing his features at odds with the personality they had seen of him so far. Kanon scowled slightly, but it wasn't directed at Gen, before she responded, "We investigated, and the result was unbelievable. It was all a hoax by Xifang; the prisoners had been tricked into believing their faction leader had ordered them on a suicide mission to the capital of Dongfang. The current monarchy had apparently used them to gain a channel into our kingdom; a method to open negotiations, so to speak." She shook her head angrily. "Those poor guys; they were all scapegoats. Either they've been executed, or enslaved, or ー and I don't even want to think about this ー they're being used for the research. I never saw them after they were put in prison, anyhow."

"So," Seiichiro clasped his hands in front of his mouth, leaning forward. "The missing _jiéshi_ isn't a hoax. _But_ Xifang fooled Dongfang into becoming complicit with their research, which then in turn led to the incidents in Beifang, the ones that resulted in over half the population of a town, several warriors, and some mages, to go missing."

"It wasn't just our town," Ryu added, "It's been happening in towns all over the damn kingdom."

"What was their research, anyhow? To find a way to restart the natural production of _jiéshi_ or to find an alternative?" Gabriel inquired, pushing up his glasses.

"I don't know," Kanon shook her head despondently, "All I know is that they claimed it would 'solve the issue of our diminishing supplies of _jiéshi'_ and that was it. I wasn't so high up that I was told much about what was going on."

Gen turned to look at Aoi, whose hand was on his chin with the elbow resting on his other arm, in a posture of deep contemplation. "Did your guests give any indication they knew of this?" he asked, softly.

"Doubtful," Aoi glanced at his assistant slightly as he spoke, and the other man shot him back a glance loaded with nervousness. "They probably only knew the baseline of the problem; unlike these three, they couldn't explicitly enter the kingdoms and see the situation for themselves, and even if they could, I don't think they did. They seemed convinced that the only problem was the sudden shortage of _jiéshi_ and the tensions in Xifang being a potential danger. I doubt they imagined," he paused, spreading his arms slightly. "Something of this magnitude." 

Gen suddenly recalled the stiffness with which Kanon had reacted to the words "Dongfang", and to the news that they had been in the exact same town as her. While it was more likely she had been struck with worry for her home, he also realized that she had been concerned her cover had been blown; hence the "secret, not necessarily official" mission, and the secrecy with which the three had been proceeding up until now.

Seiichiro let out a huge breath, as if exhausted, and Gen shot him a look of concern; now that he thought about, the two of them had been so preoccupied with their worry for Kanade and the insanity of the night that neither of them had gotten proper rest. While he wasn't all that concerned about himself, he could see the slight slump in his friend's shoulders, and reminded himself to tell Seiichiro (or force, if things got to that point) to get some rest. 

"Will you be telling Suzaku this?" This came from Aoi, in brusque tones, and Gabriel frantically pulled on his boss' sleeve, shaking his arm slightly as if to reprimand the shorter man's use of the prince's last name in such an offhand manner. Normally, either of the two retainers, or both, would have bristled at this, but right now they were too exhausted to properly care (although Gen did feel his hackles raise, slightly). 

"I'll tell him tomorrow," responded Seiichiro, rubbing his forehead as if he had a headache. "When he's feeling slightly better, or calmer, or at least has rested, for once."

Takato shot them both sympathetic looks. "On that note, neither of you looks like you've slept for over a week; why don't you guys go rest? We'll help out, if there's anything you want us to do." Beside him, his brother shot him a slightly startled look, and Kanon pointedly shot the older a look. "What? I mean, I'm perfectly fine over here, and I don't think sitting around will do much for my nerves anyways."

Gen fought to suppress a smile; he found himself rather liking this Takato character, although he had to admit ー and he knew this was rude, considering they had just met ー he was a little simple. He could imagine the craziness the three of them had likely gotten themselves into on their troubles (if the exploding waterfall comment from earlier was to be believed). 

"We should _all_ rest," interjected Gabriel. "I hate to be a mother hen, as the phrase goes, but all of us have been awake and busy since the night before, and it's already well past noon. Especially you two," Here he pointed at Gen and Seiichiro, in that order. "You look almost dead on your feet. And sir, you've had a rather unhealthy habit of doing work well past midnight recently," "It's _necessary,_ Gabe." "And I won't hear of your excuses; you need your rest. The same goes for you three," He glanced up at the trio, gaze rapidly turning stern. "While I appreciate the offer to help, Takato-san, it won't do to overwork any of you, not when we are the ones who likely will have to face this problem soon." His stern gaze traveled over them again, and he practically pulled Aoi to his feet. "Am I understood?"

"As clear as the dawn, sir." came the mocking response from Kanon, although her voice was the lightest Gen had heard it, and even sounded relatively friendly. 

"Well then," snorted Ryu, although his tone had lightened a little as well, "I suppose this council is dismissed."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> LOTS of reveals in this chapter, since information swaps tend to mean everyone learns more stuff! Of course, there's still a lot of mysteries. What are the "strange beasts"? Why was the king of Nan Fang killed? Why did the assassins stop in Aoi's town using such an elaborate method of disguise?
> 
> And seriously, what the heckin' heck is up with this author's writing schedule??
> 
> (I noticed that lots of writers and stuff post updates on their social media accounts like Twitter or Tumblr or whatever... should I perhaps start? I don't really dabble too much in the fandoms I like so I'm hesitant and shy... kinda feels like I'll get a lot of 'who the heckers are you?? where'd you come from?' And stuff...)


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another slightly shorter chapter today, but I think I'm happy about where I cut it off. Enjoy a few more new reveals, and a pretty big flashback!

_One of the perks, Kaiji discovered, of being small was the ability to climb through windows and sneak into forests unnoticed. He had discovered, when he and his family had first moved to this large town in Nan Fang, south of the capital, was that there was no end of places here waiting to be explored: an abundance of deep green forest for miles on all sides that led to enchanting places such as endless fields the color of limes or waterfalls taller than several buildings stacked up high. When he and Riku had first snuck out of their houses ー a habit that they had brought with them from their own town ー they had discovered this treasure trove of exploration. At first, Riku, being the ever responsible one, had tried to talk Kaiji out of it (the latter had been trying to climb a tree so tall that if he were to fall out of it, he potentially could have lost the use of his limbs all together), but soon he too became caught up in their games; Riku usually played the responsible one, likely since he felt **someone** needed to make sure the two of them wouldn't break their necks doing something stupid. _

_On their sixth week since the move, the two of them had snuck away from under the watchful eyes of Kaiji's grandmother, under the guise that they had wanted to go out and play with the other village children. As soon as she consented ー under the promise they would not leave each other's side ー they had rushed off to the north gates of town, far away from the West District, where they lived. Evading the watchful eyes of the guards, they snuck past the gates and practically flew into the woods; on one of their last expeditions there, they had discovered a beautiful lake, surrounded by the most lovely wisteria trees. They hadn't had much time to explore it then, so they had been bursting with the excitement to see more of it now._

_The lake was relatively easy to find; it was large, and its surface was clearer than that of any mirror they had ever seen. Below the almost crystalline waters, they could see the indistinct dark shapes of fish and the even blurrier shapes of underwater fauna, swaying in their strange, plant-y dance. Petals of wisteria fell upon the lake, sending up the slightest of ripples here and there. In the distance, they heard the long calls of birds, mixed with the breeze, and the rich smell of grass and leaves mingled with the sweet, yet faint, scent of wisterias._

_With how enamored they had been with the scenery, it could be called a miracle that they had even noticed the faint shape of the hut, deeper in the woods, past the wisterias. Riku had noticed it first; he had tugged Kaiji's sleeve fiercely, pointing beyond the trees with his finger, eyes narrowed in concentration as if affirming for himself what he was seeing. Following his friend's line of sight, he had seen, just barely, the outlines of a low roof, almost made invisible by the abundance of green surrounding it. Despite his friend's obvious trepidation, he found himself rushing towards the structure, his curiosity getting the better of him._

_As they approached the building, several details about it became more and more clear, and by the time they were standing directly before it, Kaiji knew, without a doubt, that it was abandoned. The sliding doors were all dangling from their frames ー some were missing entirely ー and the outer walls were covered in thick vines. Weeds practically blanketed the land around the hut. When Kaiji went in, ignoring his friend's protests, he saw a large hole in the roof, and several beams from the ceiling had fallen, and were now diagonally placed like large logs throughout the interior. He once again found yet another perk of being small: he could slip past the beams, and although he worried, briefly, if the remaining ones would fall on him, judging from the vines and the look of the wood, it was all super old; if it were going to fall, it would have done so a long time ago. But still, he tread with caution (mostly because he knew if he acted carelessly, he would give Riku a heart attack and then **that** would be a whole mess he'd have to explain to his parents), and behind him, he could hear his friend doing the same. _

_They became so engrossed in navigating the hut that they didn't notice the person until Kaiji had almost tripped right over him._

_When his foot suddenly got caught out of nowhere, he nearly freaked out and slammed his head into one of the wooden beams, causing Riku to squeak in fear. His friend, throwing all of his previous caution to the wind, clambered past the other beams separating them, concern etched across his face. Kaiji waved him off, before stooping to examine the... **thing**... he had just tripped over._

_It was a boy, small, with red hair that was so covered in dust and dirt he almost hadn't been able to identify the color. His skin was unnaturally pale ー unhealthily so ー and he was thin. There were slight scratches and scrapes covering his arms and legs here and there, coupled with a nasty bruise on his ankle. His clothes were covered in grime, and at his side lay an equally filthy pouch, small and ragged. His eyes were shut and he looked almost like a porcelain doll (albeit a rather dirty one). For a second, both boys worried that he might be dead, but then they noticed the slight rise and fall of his chest and breathed twin sighs of relief._

_Just then, as if awoken by the sound, they saw his eyelashes flutter, and both hastily crouched down near his head. The eyelashes slowly rose to reveal a set of bleary, deep brown eyes. Kaiji felt his breath catch; they were brown, but it was a shade that was relatively close to a dark_ _red. It wasn't a color he'd seen in anyone's eyes before._

_Then the boy blinked, breaking the spell, and Riku knelt forward, gently asking the boy if he was alright, if he was hurt. But none of the questions seemed to resonate with him, because he continued to stare at them both in abject confusion. Finally, Kaiji leaned forward as well, asking him for his name. The boy gave him a long, piercing (admittedly uncomfortable) stare, before casting his eyes downward again, and shaking his head._

_"I don't know." That was the first thing Koki had ever said to either of them._

* * *

Navigating the halls of the palace was much easier when one wasn't trying to be stealthy. It also helped that there weren't any more crowds of people, all jostling and making conversation every six steps forward. 

After they had called an impromptu recess to their little "meeting", Ryu had left the behind the study room ー no offense to the recently departed, but he hadn't been very comfortable convening in the study of a dead man ー and had been wandering the castle, searching for a good place to get himself some fresh air. He walked through the halls, feeling slightly lost; navigation, he realized, was more Kanon's forte than his, not that he would ever tell her. She already had an ever-growing list of things she found worthy of complaint about the brothers (although the same could be said with them for her). He resigned himself to simply travelling about the castle in circles; it was all one large loop anyway he reasoned ー really, it wasn't ー and eventually he'd find his way around... somehow. Hopefully. At the very least he remembered where the study was; using that as a reference point, he began to slowly map out the palace as he walked through it.

The word "large" didn't do this place justice. It was as if someone had taken the most extravagant architects on the continent and set them to work building and decorating the structure. It wasn't _gaudy,_ but it certainly didn't scream "mystics and scholars" like the palace of Beifang, nor did it seem to, in any way, resemble the war fortress that was the palace of Dongfang. He'd never seen Xifang, but he doubted _they_ would live in a castle such as this.

"It's their aesthetic," Kanon had said, on their journey. "Nan Fang is technologically advanced and wealthy. They care less for war or making themselves seem all-powerful; they've got an appreciation for beauty and elegance because they _can._ Each kingdom follows their own set of aesthetics and principles: Beifang with secrecy, Dongfang with pride, and Xifang..." Here she had paused, scrunching her nose in thought. "I guess... power? Strength? I'm not sure."

"Power sounds about right," Takato had commented, "But how does that make them different from Dongfang, with their war fortress castle and crazy strong warriors?" They had been eating at a small pub in a roadside town, a tiny village that lay on the border between Dongfang and Nan Fang.

"I think it's a matter of principle," Ryu had responded instead. "Dongfang takes _pride_ in their strength, but it's not the strength part that really matters; it's that they value the pride you feel is a result. So even if you're not some crazy strong warrior, you would still feel pride in your home, solely because you're under the flag of the Blue Dragon."

"Exactly," Kanon had nodded, while taking a bite of her meat dumplings. "That's what I was taught, since I was small; it's not strength or power that makes you a person of Dongfang, but the pride you feel standing under Qinglóng, the blue dragon. Whereas in Xifang..." She shrugged, pausing to chew her meal before swallowing. "They value the strong, and the weak get kicked down as a result. Think about it; whoever is strongest there wins. If pride were a factor in it they'd be more liable to hold themselves together ー they would all be united under Baihu's flag ー but they don't care about the pride you feel growing up there. All you need to be is powerful and they'll respect _that_ aspect of you the most." Even with this explanation, Takato had wrinkled his nose, an indication he hadn't been satisfied by the answer. 

"It's like," Ryu set his spoon down, having polished off the last of his soup while Kanon had been talking. "Dongfang prefers it if it's people were more prideful than they were powerful. In Xifang, it's just the opposite." Kanon nodded in agreement, and Takato finally let a small "Ohhh, I see." to which Kanon muttered something along the lines of "Sure took you long enough." After that they had spoken well into the night, although the contents were fuzzy in Ryu's mind; he's pretty sure they had begun drinking at some point.

Musing on this conversation, he turned a corner down yet another unbelievably long hallway (was "confusing people to the point their eyes spin" a part of Nan Fang aesthetic too?), and nearly ran straight into someone who was coming in from the opposite direction. He immediately jumped back, hand reaching for a weapon that was no longer there; his nerves, he realized, were more frayed than he had thought initially.

The first thing his eyes caught was the increasingly familiar head of red hair, and the wide eyes beneath it. It seemed, he mused offhandedly, that whenever he ran into this particular person he was always catching him off guard. It was kind of funny, he had to admit. 

(And the redhead's looks of wide-eyed surprise _were_ rather endearing; cute, even, if he was being honest to himself.)

"Hey," he tried, casually, masking his earlier alarm and the fact that he had tried to reach for a nonexistent weapon hanging at his belt. "What are you doing out here? I thought you were resting in the infirmary."

Koki shook his head, nervously rubbing the back of his neck. "I was... but it got incredibly stuffy and," He paused here, shifting from one foot to the other. "I kinda felt... in the way?"

Ryu crossed his arms, amused. "Are you sure?" he asked, teasingly. "Are you not, say, sneaking out of the infirmary against the wishes of your very overprotective friends?"

The redhead immediately clutched his arm. "Did you run into them?! I swear, I only said I'd go out for a break, and even though they told me not to go too far, I kinda... wandered around and got lost, and now I'm afraid they're going around and looking for me and..." He let go of Ryu's arm, slumping downwards. "Ugh, this is embarrassing."

Against his better wishes, Ryu burst out laughing; the redhead stared at him, alarmed, and that set off another round of laughter. Koki puffed out one cheek in indignation, before shoving his arm lightly. "It's not funny! I don't want people thinking they're my... my parents or something! Besides, it's Riku's fault I left the infirmary anyway, so they can't completely blame this one on me."

Ryu grinned, wiping a tear from the corner of his eye. "What do you mean?" he asked. 

"Riku accidentally ate too many of those tangerines they leave by the patient's beds, and he got a stomach ache, but he didn't want to stop the healers from doing their work so he didn't say anything for a while, but then suddenly he keels over on top of me, saying he's not feeling well, so Kaiji and I had to put him on the bed I was using and had him rest there, except Riku insisted he was fine, which he obviously _wasn't,_ " Koki cut himself off, cheeks red with agitation, and then resumed, "So we had to practically force him to rest, and then I said I wanted to go get fresh air but they both were against me going off, so I promised I wouldn't go far, but I _did_ and now I'm _lost_ and on top of that they told me not to talk to yー" Here he froze, glancing up at Ryu nervously, who had also frozen too.

For a minute, the two stood there awkwardly, looking everywhere but at each other. 

"It's not," Koki broke the silence, his voice containing none of his earlier boyish excitement. "It's not that you _did_ anything wrong to offend them it's just..." He ran a hand nervously through his hair, and Ryu followed the movement with his eyes, mesmerized. "I'm sorry, I told them that you were on our roof last week and the story gave them a bad impression. They don't mean to be rude or anything; I think they're just worried about whether I can trust you, since you three haven't officially met yet."

"Well, we sorta did," he laughed. "They seemed pretty okay with me, although the blonde one panicked when he saw me holding you." He gave the boy a teasing smirk. "I don't think he was very happy that you were so close to someone else~"

This elicited an outraged squawk from the redhead, who shoved him, playfully. "Don't!" he practically shouted, cheeks the color of ripe apples, "Don't! Say! Stuff like that! With a straight face!" Ryu laughed; the other boy was desperately trying to hide how flustered he was, to no avail. Grumbling, the redhead shoved him again, a little stronger this time. "See, if you said stuff like _that_ in front of them, they'd **definitely** not let me near you!"

"Oh, so you need your wards' permission to hang out with new faces now!"

"That is _not_ what I said!"

"Besides, I don't see what you're reading so much into. All I did was suggest your friend didn't like me touching you and you get all flustered and red."

"Shut up!"

"Make me!"

"I will!"

"You definitely won't!"

"I will!"

Ryu couldn't take it anymore; he burst out laughing, again. "What are you, a kid?" he chuckled, holding his stomach. Koki glowered at him with a look of indignation, before bursting out into laughter of his own. 

As their laughter died down, Ryu glanced past the other's head, down the hall where he had come from. A young servant, presumably in her early teens, perhaps, turned red and dashed away; she had been staring at the two of them curiously for some time. "Wanna... go find a better place to talk? I think the longer we stand here, the more funny looks we're gonna get." Koki gave him yet another look of surprise, before his face broke out into a bright smile, and he gave a nod. 

They walked around for a while, peeking into open doors and generally attracting the occasional curious stares, keeping silent the whole time. He worried that maybe the redhead hadn't really wanted to talk some more with him, but whenever he snuck small glances at the other he saw him simply staring with almost comical intensity around him, as if finding "a better place to talk" was some sort of dangerous mission that required the utmost concentration. The sight made him want to laugh; not because of its hilarity ー although that was a factor ー but because he found it rather heartwarming, not that he could explain why. 

"Oh!" At Koki's sudden exclamation, Ryu nearly jumped out of his skin. The redhead was pointing with wide eyes outside a window. "It's that weird glowing garden from yesterday!"

Ryu peered outside as well; indeed it was. He could see the strange lamps pulsing faintly in the afternoon light, and the flowers appeared less ethereal than they had at night; instead, they appeared to glow a soft white light, like that of lilies. Beside him, he heard Koki make a soft noise at the back of his throat, likely in awe of its beauty. However, his brow was slightly creased, and he kept rubbing his head every now and then, to the point Ryu worried that perhaps his head injury from the night before was still bothering him. 

"Is your head okay?" he tried asking, not really sure what else he could say. Showing concern and kindness was more Takato's forte; he always seemed to ask things too insensitively, and he winced at the brusqueness of his own tone at the question. 

Koki, on the other hand, seemed unbothered; he frowned, tapped the side of his head once, before shaking it. "It's not that... the healers did a great job with my head. Oh wait, that sounds weird." He groaned. "You know what I mean."

Ryu frowned, and in grave tones said, "Maybe you _should_ get your head checked again." He threw him a cheeky little grin right afterwards.

Koki blinked, before red began appearing at his cheeks and on ー he noted with fascination ー the tips of his ears. "I do _no_ ー, oh that was a joke." The redhead glowered at Ryu from behind his bangs. "Ha, ha, very funny." He then gave a small laugh, a light sound that reminded Ryu of sunlight pouring through the trees, before wincing. "It's not my injury from last night... I think it's the garden; I don't think it likes me very much."

Ryu waited for the other boy to elaborate, but he gave no indication that he would continue, so he cleared his throat before asking, "And by 'it doesn't like you very much', you mean... that garden?" He pointed out the window to towards the flowers; a nice breeze had stirred them up a bit, and he felt a small thrill from the _jiéshi_ in the lamps (that's right, he realized, he had forgotten to ask about the _jiéshi_ garden earlier) that indicated the magic inside the stones was in "a good mood". Mostly this constituted that the magic inside was at peak energy levels, and would perform at its best had someone utilized the magic then. Of course, these ones were stored in the oddly tall lamps above the garden, so that wasn't really an option. When _jiéshi_ was in a "bad mood", the magic simply was harder to tap into; it gave mages with lesser skill a lot more trouble than they normally would have performing beginner and intermediate spells.

Koki had his eyes closed, but he nodded in response to Ryu's question. "Yeah, I had a headache when I went in there last night. It _hurt_ a lot; much more than when those guys knocked me down. Like someone was screaming at me from inside my skull, or something." He shook his head, and Ryu saw his eyes were slightly bleary and out of focus. "I've never had headaches like _that_ before, and I don't think it was a normal headache, anyhow; I mean, it felt a lot likeー" Here he cut off, suddenly snapping back into focus, and his eyes became clearer, more focused... and Ryu looked at them and nearly lost his breath at their beauty.

They were curious eyes, and he found himself staring; they were a deep brown that could be taken as black from afar, but when inspected at close range like this, he saw a deep, dark red color mixed in there too, much like the deep wine red of his hair. They were large too, framed by long eyelashes, and he found himself almost enraptured by their depth. It wasn't until Koki turned curious eyes on him that he realized he had been gazing rather intently at the other's face, to an almost embarrassing degree.

"It," Trying to mask his embarrassment, Ryu coughed lightly into his hand, before asking, "It felt like...?"

Koki glanced around them; there was nobody else in the long hall, save for the two boys. His eyes traveled back up to Ryu's face before dropping down. "It felt," he almost whispered, "A lot like that time you pulled that... _jiéshi_ thing out that night." His face went downwards as well, until his bangs were hanging in front of his face, shielding it from Ryu's, who was wavering between complete confusion and a dawning sense of... something. Like he was about to learn something vitally important, but he wouldn't know _why_ it was important upon hearing it. Sort of like Kanon's endless repertoire of confusing and foreshadowing bits of information; stuff that tended to be relevant to them long after she had told them and both he and Takato had forgotten most of it. 

When he didn't respond, Koki barreled onward, his face a mix of confusion and guilt. "I didn't really know what it was, and I couldn't explain it all that well, so I didn't tell anyone, and I didn't think it was important, but," His eyes went back up, slightly, so that he was angling his gaze up towards Ryu. "It happened last night, in the garden. I don't know why, but I was sitting there, and then suddenly I felt _really_ sick, so I tried to get out of there as fast as possible, before I got attacked. The feeling was kinda like when you showed me the _jiéshi;_ I felt... weird... when you showed me. It felt, I don't know, _wrong_ somehow, when I saw that stone, but it was brief that time and I tried not to think about it too much."

Ryu frowned. "Wrong?"

"Well, I know it's gonna sound weird, but the best I could describe the feeling was, yeah, _wrong._ It felt almost... offensive." The boy hands each grabbed a fistful of his shirt, and he continued, sounding slightly frustrated, as if angry with himself for being unable to articulate his feelings properly. "But when I went into the garden last night, I got hit with the same feeling, except," The redhead turned his head to look out the window again. "Except now it felt like _I_ was the 'wrong' one; like I shouldn't be there. The garden was... **mad** at me."

"There was _jiéshi_ in that garden," Ryu spoke slowly, eyes trained on the other to gauge his reaction. "Do you maybe have an aversion to _jiéshi_ or something? Were you ever exposed to it as a kid?" Before he could even finish asking, Koki was already shaking his head.

"I don't know." was the despondent response.

"What do you mean?"

"When you showed me the _jiéshi_ on the roof," Koki said quietly, "Remember that I didn't know what it was? You said people in Crimson call them God's stones, but I've never even heard _that_ name either. As far as my memories take me, I've never heard that name, nor seen the stone." He carefully rested his arms on the windowsill, eyes never straying from the garden. "So even if there was _jiéshi_ in the garden back then, I wouldn't have known. And if I knew I had an aversion to it, I would've gotten out of there sooner, trust me."

Ryu blinked. _As far as my memories take me..._ Why had he chosen to say it like _that?_

"When you said 'as far as my memories take me'," He walked over and leaned against the windowsill, his back facing outside, before he turned his face to look at Koki's; with the closer proximity, he could see a slight crease in the redhead's brow, and his expression looked almost... pained. "Do you mean for as long as you've been alive, or...?"

Koki laughed, but there was no energy behind it, and his expression was somewhat sad. "You're really smart," he sighed, "You're right; it's the 'or'. I don't have my memories from before I was... six? Seven? Somewhere there." Resting his elbows on the windowsill, he propped up his chin on one hand, before continuing, "Kaiji and Riku both found me in this broken down hut in the woods, close to the town where they lived, but I must have hit my head or something because I couldn't remember a single thing before that. I told you, right? That I didn't know my last name, so they called me Tendo? Apparently each family chose a handful of characters and let me choose my favorites, and then they stuck them together in various ways until we found a last name that was good for, well, the time being. I was still disoriented then so I don't really remember the details all that well... but the point is," And here he suddenly turned to look Ryu in the eyes, "I've never been exposed to _jiéshi_ ever, so far as I've been with those two. So even if I _had,_ I can't remember." Biting his lip, the redhead turned back away, and Ryu suddenly felt immensely guilty, although for what, he wasn't certain.

Without thinking, he leaned over and covered one of Koki's hands; they were surprisingly soft, and delicately shaped. They radiated warmth, and Ryu gently rubbed the flat of his thumb over the back of the redhead's hand, before tightening his grip ever so slightly; strong enough, he hoped, to feel comforting but not enough to hurt. 

"I'm sorry," he mouthed, not daring to articulate the words, and the other boy stared at him, slightly startled, before shaking his head. Neither of them spoke for a while, simply holding that position and staring down at the grounds below. He didn't know how long they had held that position; Ryu felt himself entering a state of languidness and relaxation.

So he was caught completely by surprise when a voice behind him, calm, said, "Ryu."

Startled, he let go of Koki's hand; beside him, he could feel the latter whirl around too, obviously rattled. In front of him, eyebrow raised, was Kanon. Behind her was Takato, whose face was a little red, and who was throwing his brother apologetic glances, for some reason. 

Kanon only spared Koki a swift glance, before inclining her head, "Our little 'meeting' is about to reopen," She smiled sardonically. "It seems that assistant, Gabriel, wanted us all to take longer rests, but no one was able to relax completely." Her face turned serious. "This time, it seems, Kanade will be rejoining us."

Ryu blinked, startled. "So soon? I thought he wouldn't be fine until like, tomorrow, at the earliest."

Takato shook his head, "Nope, seems like he wanted to join the discussion as soon as possible, after that Seiichiro guy told him all the details about our first 'chat'." He shrugged. "Can't blame him. Things are probably sounding super crazy for him, so he probably wants to get to the bottom of this as soon as possible." Throwing a worried glance at his younger brother, he looked at Koki. "Uh, hey, sorry, but we're gonna borrow Ryu for a while, um...?

"Koki." The redhead gave the two newcomers a quick look. "Tendo Koki. Ryu... saved me yesterday."

"Ohh," Takato nodded, "You were the injured kid! Yeah, Ryu told me about how you saved his butt yesterday, too. Thanks, kid." Leaning forward, he began to abruptly ruffle Koki's hair, making the younger squeak in surprise. "I'm Takato, Ryu's older brother, and this grumpy lady here is Naruse Kanon, our friend."

"Takato," Kanon sighed, eyes rolling to the heavens above, " _Please_ refrain from giving out our personal information so easily."

"Aww, c'mon Kanon! He saved Ryu! That makes him automatic friend material in my book."

"Oh, whatever... come on, you two. The meeting is likely under way." Turning with a huff, their female companion began to walk the halls with a stride much faster than her small physique suggested. 

"Yeah... well, see you, Koki!" Takato flashed him a brilliant smile. "It's nice to meet one of Ryu's new friends." Ryu sighed, deciding it was not worth the hassle to correct his brother.

(Truth be told, seeing him call Koki a 'friend' made him much happier than he was willing to admit.)

"...wait." The voice was small, but it was there, and the trio stopped in their tracks; Ryu froze, apology and goodbye already halfway out his throat. Koki glanced up at all of them; his eyes burned with _something_ that resembled determination, but not quite. "Please. Let me come too."

Kanon shook her head. "Absolutely not." she snapped. "We can't let civilians get caught up in this mess; it's much more troublesome and dangerous than anything you're imagining. And it's _top secret_ anyway." Takato frowned, but he didn't say anything.

"Kokiー" Ryu began, but the redhead was already cutting him off.

"I don't know what's going on, but I want to... I _need_ to know. Weird things happened in the garden last night, and I stabbed a guy," Ryu winced, and he saw Takato do the same. Kanon's features twisted briefly into something like sympathy. "And I was talking to Ryu about _jiéshi_ and he thinks I might have an... aversion?... to it, but I don't know, and I can't," He paused here, jaw clenched in desperation. "I can't turn my back to it. _Please._ I may not be magic, and I can't fight with a sword, but I feel like if I turn my back on this I'll regret it forever." Bending forward, the boy bowed his head, voice firm despite the pleading note behind it. 

Ryu glanced at his companions; Kanon was shaking her head, but Takato was tilting his own, seemingly lost in thought, before he finally opened his mouth. "Let's take him, Kanon."

"What?!" "Takato?!" Both Ryu's and Kanon's voices overlapped in perfect unison.

"Thing is," Takato shot his younger brother an apologetic glance. "Ryu told me something interesting about this kid, how he was able to..." Finally, Ryu realized what Takato was going to say, and found himself shaking his head, despite knowing it would do little to stop his brother. 

"He was able to see past Ryu's invisibility spell. And not only that, according to Ryu, he saw past the enemy's distortion spell too."

Kanon had frozen, mid-protest; Koki, who had been listening to the exchange, had his head tilted in confusion. Ryu was debating grabbing him and running away, or smacking the hell out of his brother, but before he could do either of those, he saw Kanon's eyes go wide.

"He _what?_ Are you sure?"

"Dead sure," Takato nodded. "I trust Ryu." Normally, those words would make him a little happier, but right now, all he could do was glower resentfully at his older brother, who offered a weak shrug of apology.

Kanon's eyes glinted, and before anyone knew what was happening, she had grabbed Koki's arm in an almost vice-like grip; he could see the pain flash across the redhead's face, and immediately surged forward to shake her off, to no avail, until she had released him on her own.

"Fine," she snapped. "We'll take this kid. But you will, under _no_ circumstances, tell anyone else of this unless we give you permission." Ignoring the younger boy's hurried nods, she whirled on the Kyogoku brothers. "Takato! Ryu! Don't tell _anyone_ else what you just told me about this kid. Got it?" The two brothers shot each other confused looks. 

"I mean, obviously we weren't going to," Ryu began slowly, "But why are you so... fired up about this?"

Kanon sighed, pushing her hair back. "Because," she said, simply, in an almost flat tone of voice, "I've heard of something like this before. And if I'm right about the symptoms, it could either help us greatly with our problem or hurt our progress more than anything else."

"Woah, woah, wait," Takato glanced behind him, nervously, at Koki, who was rubbing his arm. "Symptoms?" Ryu carefully angled himself between the boy and Kanon, who was nodding in response to Takato's query.

"Yes," she sighed. "If what you're saying is correct, about this boy's ability to see past magic, then you may be looking at the symptoms of a 'forsaken child'."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got the feeling I was moving a little slow on the reveals and stuff, and now I get the sense I'm cramming it a little. But trust me, with the lore I've been building, had I gone with the original pacing, I think no one would've been able to remember half the information I revealed throughout. I initially hadn't written the 'meeting' this way, but now that I did, I'm slightly satisfied with the way it's playing out. 
> 
> More questions! What is a forsaken child? A disease? A species? And why is amnesia such a staple theme in most fantasy works/AUs?


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Lots of dialogue in the later half. It will get confusing. Also, I both love and hate writing dialogue because (a) you can express each character's personality/self in the way they speak but (b) it is VERY HARD to avoid not just writing dialogue when I should be adding more to it (what they're doing as they speak, their surroundings, etc.).
> 
> ANYWAY, here's to another chapter. I started two other projects so if I ever lose speed on this one I still have motivation to keep writing and eventually bring myself back to track.

"Forsaken children" were supposed to be the harbingers of calamity; the fearsome and terrible criminals who defied the laws of magic and nature, and were cursed by the mythical beasts themselves, and thus by the gods who had granted them their power. They would wreak untold havoc on the natural order of the world and throw it into disarray, they would threaten the lives of everyone on the continent, no mage or royal would ever be able to withstand them if they were to go on a rampage, blah blah blah blah _blah._ Kanon had heard the tales countless times, always whispered in hushed tones of deep fascination mingled with fear. She had always thought such tales were naught but myths, and, besides, what was the harm of a few children being born with the ability to defy the rules of magic and the gods? If they decided to do something bad, whatever that would constitute, it wasn't like they had the earth-crushing power of the four mythical beasts on their side. She had seen the "forsaken children" as nothing more than the overblown superstitions of overly dramatic adults, who needed some "great and powerful evil" in the world to justify themselves as in the right. Even now she was convinced that that was part of the reason.

But she had never imagined, not in her wildest dreams, that one of those so-called "forsaken children" would be a girl only a few years above her age.

The girl in question had been training to be a warrior, and Kanon had always liked her; she was strong, and brave, and she could hold her own against even the toughest and strictest of instructors. Everyone was sure she would be promoted in the imperial army's ranks as soon as she graduated. She had been the pride of her family; everyone said as much. 

That all changed when she suddenly stopped making appearances in class. Kanon, who had been secretly receiving her instruction in blade work, had only been crestfallen at the time; she liked their secret lessons, and she had wondered if the girl had decided to stop showing up. It miffed her a little, but when the weeks stretched to months, her light feelings of disappointment turned to real concern and worry. Then, the rumors began to circulate the palace.

_Did you hear? **That girl** was found to be one of those "forsaken children", and the royal family took her away to dispose of her or punish her. _

_Can you believe it? She was such a good girl, but the entire time she was hiding from us that she was a monster! No wonder she was so skilled in the art of fighting, but never seemed to do well in magic. She was cursed!_

_She might have been plotting to take over this palace with her skills. All that talk of promotions and her talent... I always thought there was something off about her._

And so forth. Kanon had been disgusted; half the gossipers had been the slavering hanger-ons of the girl, but now that she was gone, they had deemed it necessary to use her as the source of their entertainment, their wish for a little secrecy and excitement. She debated smiting the whole lot of them, even to this day, but back then she hadn't had the magic prowess she had now, even if she had wanted to.

The family of the girl moved out of the palace shortly afterward, all gone without a trace. The rumors picked up with a fever pitch, and more and more nobles and students clung to them like spiders to a web. Every time she saw a sly, fox-like smile grace the lips of one of the gossipers as they weaved their tales of her evil, she wanted to smack them. Were they so delighted in her fall?

But there were others, unlike the gossipers, who took the rumors to heart in a different manner. This came from the older group, whose faces turned a ghostly white at the words "forsaken child" and made warding gestures with a sincerity that scared her. They didn't see this as the fall of a once-rising star who had bested everyone, but the foreshadowing of some great and inexplicable evil. There were even some citizens who demanded the emperor let the people see the girl's head on a pike, or even her execution, but the royalty never answered to those demands with anything more than a vague promise that they were "handling the situation". 

Kanon had been terrified, and against her better judgement (or perhaps with her better judgement), decided she needed to go see the girl at once, at least one more time. She didn't spare a thought to the idea that she was no longer alive; she turned her head against it, shaking it off, because the mere thought made her more and more anguished than she already was. 

Finding her had been far easier than she had warranted, ー although she had snuck into places she wasn't allowed into and she had broken several palace rules in the process ー but when she saw where they had put her, she had been completely stunned into silence. The girl had been put behind the bars of a cage, which she had found in the lower levels of the palace, where the worst prisoners were held, and was far thinner and filthier than she had remembered her last. She was so malnourished that Kanon doubted they were even feeding her properly. When she had approached, the girl ー whose reflexes were normally so well-honed that she could sense someone approaching from several feet away ー had barely noticed, until she had rapped lightly on one of the bars.

 _What are you doing here? Are you okay?_ Questions she had wanted to ask had piled up, but she had swallowed them down in shock when the girl finally looked in her direction.

Her eyes had not glimmered with their usual ferocity that could melt into sisterly friendliness, nor had they even sparked with recognition. Instead, the girl had looked at her with dead eyes, before muttering something Kanon couldn't catch at first, until she moved her ear closer.

_It wasn't me._

She felt her shoulders jolt at the lifelessness with which the words were uttered. But then they continued.

 _It wasn't me. It wasn't me. It wasn't me. It wasn't me. It wasn't me. It wasn't me. It wasn't me. It wasn't me. It wasn't me. It wasn't me. It wasn't me, it wasn't me, it wasn't me, it wasn't me, it wasn't me, it wasn't me, it wasn't me, it wasn't me, it wasn't me, it wasn't me, it wasn't me, it wasn't me_ ー

**_I'm not cursed._ **

Kanon had, terrified, fled from the place as fast as her legs could carry her. The girl's mutterings had followed her, even after she had finally made it back to the ground level floors, out of breath and shaking.

The girl in the cage had no longer been the brave, dependable role model Kanon knew, admired by many. She had been trapped down there, for being, if the rumors were to be believed, a "forsaken child". The result had been _that,_ a mixture of despair and madness, muttering the same things over and over again. But even after her mind had been completely lost, she couldn't see the heinous doom-bringer of the stories. All she saw was the husk of a girl with a once-bright future, locked away to be consequently forgotten. 

It was that incident that triggered Kanon to begin her research into "forsaken children". She scoured the books of pretty much every library and archive in Dongfang, and when that didn't work, she used her trips out of the capital to sneak into old bookstores in even the most rural of towns. Whenever her father, who often traveled as part of his service to one of the members of the royal family, went out, she asked him to bring back any books related to myths and magic and superstitions. (If she told him her motive, however, he would surely discourage her, so she always asked for a novel too, as a cover-up. It made for some good reading, to her delight.) However, even with her research and studying, which soon spanned years, she discovered very little. The only worthwhile thing she uncovered was the specifics behind what exactly constituted a "forsaken child". 

In the end, however, the problem with the _jiéshi_ and the issues of Dongfang and Xifang's conspiracy had driven her focus in a new direction, and recently she had given very little thought to her research.

Until she met the boy with the wine red hair and the deep brown eyes with Ryu, and realized that he was one of those "forsaken children" she had been working so hard to understand.

* * *

Kanon sighed and leaned back into her chair. "That's how I discovered what a 'forsaken child' is. To this day, I have no clue what happened to her, and I'm honestly afraid to find out."

Takato glanced behind him with a small twinge of unease; the redhead in question was listening to Kanade and the other's with rapt attention. After they had brought him to the impromptu meeting with no warning, there had been a fair bit of protest, until Ryu had stoically pointed out that they were both around the same age ー which nullified Aoi's argument that he was "too young" ー and he had told them that he had been semi-involved with the attack on the palace the night before ー effectively countering Gen's claim that he wasn't "involved with the problem". In the end, Kanade had given his own consent; the prince had heard the story thus far from his retainers, and now they were all recounting the events and information with the younger, stopping every now and then to ensure he was following along. As they had done so, Ryu had pulled Kanon to the side and demanded an explanation, in hushed tones, as to why she had described Koki as a "forsaken child".

She had sighed, but relented with an ease unusual for her, before using a small wind spell to cancel out most outside noise, as well as prevent their voices from carrying over to the others as she spoke. Takato had wondered if there was really a _need_ to do something so secretive, but after hearing her story, he realized that she had been right to do so. If Dongfang made it apparent that they treated kids they suspected to be "forsaken", then who knew what the other kingdoms would do to theirs. Beifang didn't even _mention_ tales of such children, and Takato wondered with a chill if that meant they disposed of them in such a secret manner no one ever had the chance to learn of their existence. He didn't even want to _imagine_ what Xifang did, and despite his impression of Nan Fang maybe being the most "chill" of the four, he still was afraid of the consequences for the kid if they accidentally revealed such a thing to anyone in the palace; to the prince, no less. Not when the kid himself didn't seem to even have a grasp on what he was, much less whether he was a "forsaken child" or not. 

After Kanon had finished her story, Ryu had immediately demanded, "Well? What did you learn about the 'forsaken children' that was worthwhile?"

In response, she twirled a lock of her hair, eyes closed as she toyed with the soft wind surrounding them for a moment. "I," she frowned a bit, then continued, "I found out the _rules_ that make a child 'forsaken', and how those children are to be dealt with. None of the books say anything remotely certain or scientific, but this is what I could glean from everything that I read."

Takato leaned in, intrigued. "And those rules were?"

Kanon held up four fingers. "The rules are as follows:

1\. A child can be born forsaken if one of more of their direct ancestors ever committed a grand sin, capable of angering the beasts. This rule only worked during the era _with_ the beasts around, so this rule hasn't applied to any of the past several generations, ever. If it did, that would go _very_ far down someone's family line, without exception.

2\. A child who is forsaken if the God's stones, or the _jiéshi_ reacts in an unnatural or unusual way towards said child. Examples include spells being ineffective on them, such as communication spells being unable to ever reach them, or magic reacting negatively whenever the child is around, causing disarray in the flow of the _jiéshi._

3\. A child born recently who is forsaken is incapable of having incurred the beasts' wrath, like I said in the first one, so the chances it was inherited are high, _meaning_ there is a chance that one or more of the relatives of the child is forsaken too. I think that's why her family left the palace when they did; they must have realized why she had been locked up and escaped while they can."

Here she paused again, and Takato saw her eyebrows scrunch in anger. Ryu, seeming to sense her change in mood, swallowed; Takato guessed he had been about to prompt her to continue, but something in her expression made him change his mind. Finally, Kanon folded down her last finger, before spitting out:

"The last rule is by far the stupidest, and I don't think it should even _apply_ as a rule:

4\. Any child who is forsaken is considered a blight on the natural world and a disgrace to the beasts. They shoulder the sins of their ancestors and are thus made to carry out that burden, but because of the _potential danger_ they possess they are not to be permitted to live past the ages of sixteen, lest they discover 'what they are capable of'." She bit her lip, eyes burning even hotter, and Takato was shocked to see her eyes redden the tiniest bit. "Surprise, surprise, none of those _damn_ books gave any clue as what the hell forsaken children are 'capable of', only that it would be oh so dangerous and destructive and would doom us all." She shook her head angrily, before continuing to spit out in hateful tones, "It's because they spread such irresponsible and vague _lies_ that kids like her have probably been killed up until now, but those... _assholes_ with their pretentious names and fancy writing pens probably don't give a _shit_ who gets hurt as long as they get to look like the wise prophets of doom, don't theyー"

"Kanon!" Before he knew what he was doing, Takato was grabbing his friend by the shoulders, shaking her gently to shake her out of her rage. She shot him a red-hot glare, before leaning forward, all tension in her body lost, like a puppet with its strings cut.

Behind him, he could feel at least one of the people gathered shooting them curious looks, and belatedly realized that even if their voices weren't heard, if they moved suddenly, like he had, or looked angry, like Kanon, anyone else would probably wonder what was going on.

"So what you're saying," Ryu said slowly, "Is that Koki is one of those kids, and if it gets out..."

"I don't know how Nan Fang deals with them," she listlessly replied, "Nor do I think you want to risk it. He's your friend, isn't he?"

Ryu's expression at those words were hard for even Takato to describe, and he had been through his brother for the better and worse parts of his life. It was a complicated expression, like he wanted to refute Kanon's words, but he also seemed to be surprised, and a tad bit delighted, although that was whisked away when he noticed his older brother staring at him. Clearing his throat, the younger Kyogoku brother continued, "Well, 'friend' is debatable, but I don't want him to go crazy like your friend, that's for sure." 

"I don't know how Nan Fang deals with forsaken children," Kanon shook her head. "Quite frankly, I'm a little afraid to find out."

"So we don't tell them," Takato gazed at both his brother and her face in turn. "We have a much bigger problem to worry about right now, with Dongfang and Xifang and the murders and every other strange thing that's been going on lately, so I don't think being a 'forsaken child' right now is anyone's top concern. There's no need to tell them right now, and it's not our secret to tell anyway." 

"For the record," Ryu piped up, "I don't think he's aware of what a forsaken child is, either. He didn't understand what a _jiéshi_ was and he had no clue why he had such a weird reaction to them in the first place; not surprising, considering he's never seen or heard of them before."

Their friend sighed, but it was less one of resignation and more of slight exasperation, which lifted Takato's spirits. It seemed she had calmed down, at least for the time being.

"Besides," he added, gently, "If you're right, Kanon, then the rumors that they supposedly have some 'great and terrible power' are probably bullshit. People just get scared of things they're not used to, or things that don't make sense to them. So long as we don't say anything, the kid should be fine, and," He offered her a crooked smile. "These Nan Fang folks don't seem all that bad to me. At the very least, I don't think they'll try and lock the kid up at the drop of a hat; I mean, we're still here even after we told them we're from Beifang and you're from Dongfang." At this she barked a small laugh.

"Alright, Takato, I concede to your point," She waved a hand airily. "Now get your hands off me so I can take down this spell, and we can finally pick up discussions with our 'esteemed hosts'. It seems they're done explaining things to the boy." When Takato released his grip on her shoulders, she snapped her fingers with a light sound, and he heard the soft hiss of the wind around them dispelling, and outside noises suddenly returned to their world. 

_We must have looked weird,_ he thought with a sheepish wince. _All agitated and angry-looking (OK, that was Kanon), but with no sound._ Behind him, Gen was shooting them all an incredulous expression, with one eyebrow raised, but he didn't press the point when the three rejoined the group. Aoi, too, had shot them all a slightly suspicious stare, but it had faded when they rejoined the group; either he had resigned himself to the trio's weirdness and secretiveness, or he planned to question them all later. Takato had a suspicion it was the latter. Kanade, on the other hand, seemed to have taken no notice to their group's little side meeting; he had been one of the ones talking to Koki, and he felt a twinge of sympathy and respect for the young prince, whose attitude in the wake of sudden tragedy left one with the impression he was stronger than he let his looks lead others to believe. But Takato could see a slight droop in his eyes from fatigue, and his expression when they had first brought Koki in had been the complicated one of a child whose feelings were trying to be resorted and reordered. He felt a rush of rage rise anew at Xifang, and wondered how long it would take before he had the opportunity to go tear them a new one for their schemes. 

Kanon stepped up lightly to Kanade and the others, clapping her hands together once, her normal expression of composure once again gracing her features. "Now," she smiled, all traces of her earlier distress vanished without a trace, and she looked up at the other men gathered in the room. Her back was straightened and she had retained all of her former grace and poise after that brief respite of uncontrolled emotion. "Now that we all seem to be caught up, shall we pick up where we left off?"

* * *

_Somewhere, on the far outskirts of Nan Fang, in the woods_

The forests of the south were abundant in their beauty, with a rich bounty of trees that could reach to untold heights and flowers blooming and bursting in all their glory, whether it be from branches or from the soil. Wild and strange creatures bounded freely through the woods, and there was no end to the lakes and rivers, with their water clearer than crystal and reflecting the light of the sun when it shone. Nan Fang was a beautiful place, blessed by nature; of the four kingdoms, it might have, by far, been the most beautiful. The only thing that could eclipse this sight were the mountains of Beifang; they were shrouded in mist and lathered with mystery, but from afar one could see the growth of the most magical looking forests, and the peaks of the mountain shone almost silver with the mist in the night. It was nothing like Xifang, he mused, but then again, he had never seen much of Xifang's nature, considering his position. And while he felt a sense of aesthetic appreciation at the overflowing beauty that was Nan Fang's territory, he also felt a sense of vehemence at the trouble it posed for a group of criminals ー it was what Nan Fang would likely start calling them ー who were trying to get as far away from the kingdom as possible.

It was _especially_ cumbersome when one was surrounded by companions who had a tendency to talk too much and too loud, and would get into an argument with one another solely because they _could,_ even if it interfered with their progress.

" _Gah,_ why are these woods so _dense?!_ I can't see a damn why ahead! Hey! Are you sure we're going in the right direction?!"

_Here we go._

"Of _course_ he knows, silly, otherwise he wouldn't be leading us this way. Just because you're too hotheaded to see forward sometimes doesn't mean everyone's the same as you~"

"Shut it, you teddy loving freak; I'm only checking because _last_ time we came here we came by the travelling road, so I _wasn't sure_ if our 'great and talented' navigator here knew for sure where he was taking us!"

"Oh _shut up_ you two, you're so loud."

" _You_ shut up! It's not like there's gonna be anyone around to hear us, and if there was then _this guy_ here should have picked up on it!"

"Look, that's not why I told you to shut up and you know it."

"Ah?!"

"He means you're _noisy,_ bud, so _please_ just do us all a favor and _be quiet._ Honestly."

"You picking a fight?!"

"By all means, go ahead."

"You're the one who got his ass handed to him by that sudden intruder! You've still got the blood on your side!"

"And _you two_ are the ones who, to borrow your phrase, 'got your asses handed to you' by two children. And you can't even move your arm properly again yet so I would suggest you not threaten me."

"Speaking of, one of those kids was kinda off... didn't he see past my spell? You saw it too, right?"

"Yeah, he did. That's why I _told_ you to just disguise yourself, but you wanted to do the fancy thingー"

"Oh, hush, you know we're expected to be as elegant and fancy as possible! It wouldn't do to just hide my face like some common criminal from a bad romance novel~"

"The hell are you two going on about?"

"Oh wouldn't _you_ like to know~"

"Stop talking like that; it's creepy."

" ** _Enough_**." He turned and glowered at them each, slowly, voice frigid like ice, and his companions all lapsed into silence. He faced forwards again, moving just as steadily through the overgrowth, continuing, "To answer your concerns; yes, I do know how to navigate from Nan Fang to Xifang. The reason we took the traders' route to the town was merely by chance; I had not anticipated an unguarded caravan to pass us by. And before anyone asks, I will not use the teleportation spell until we are close enough to the border. If I teleported you all from here, at this distance, then I would need several _jiéshi_ to do so, more than we have here. If I hear one more complaint, I _will_ see that there will be consequences. Am I understood?" Behind him, he heard voices murmuring their assent, all more subdued, with varying ranges of emotion hidden underneath.

No matter. Even if they had complaints, so long as they served under _him,_ their leader, then they all would work as a unit when the time called for it, himself included. Their leader's hold over them and their loyalty was hard to shake, even when they devolved into childish banter. Like now.

After some silence, he felt one of them open their mouths, hesitantly, and he inclined his head to indicate he was listening. After some hesitation, they finally asked, "So, _why_ were we told to go after Nan Fang's prince if you were really after the king? Couldn't we have gone after him a long time ago?" As he listened to him speak, he fingered the hilt of his _chokuto_ blade absentmindedly, wondering how to respond adequately.

"That's what I wanted to know! I mean, no offense, but wouldn't things have been much simpler if we had gone that route?" 

"No." He didn't turn his whole body this time, only opting to turn his head slightly as he spoke. "That wouldn't have worked. The assassination of the king wasn't the whole plan."

"So... what _was_ the whole plan?"

"That," he responded, carefully brushing aside a branch drooping in front of his face. He heard one of them curse behind him as they walked straight into it. "Is classified." He heard them all collectively groan. "It's _his_ orders." At that, they lapsed into a resigned silence; they never questioned the orders of their leader, no matter how enigmatic or odd they appeared to be. Only a select few were permitted to do that, and even they, recently, had had trouble probing his true intentions anymore. 

However, he also knew that several people in his court had also once been good friends of his; one of them was here, now, with them, and behind him he could sense him throwing up his arms in aggravation, earning himself an irritated squawk from the person he was walking next to.

"I can't _believe_ he gave us fake instructions only to tell you what the real mission is! I mean, come on, we're all working together, aren't we?! At the very least let us know exactly what it was we were actually sent to do! I won't ask about his motives, alright? Just give us an idea as to what's really going on here." When no response came, he gave an angry snort, and receded into a moody silence, swinging his _dadao_ in its scabbard at his side with more force than necessary. 

"I want to know, too." Another one of them piped up, gripping his scimitar in its sheath tightly. "I mean, it wasn't an easy trip, y'know? I know it was his orders, but at the very least I would like to know what it is I'm being ordered to do." Next to him, his fellow companion tapped his sheathed _dao_ lightly against the scimitar in a friendly but warning gesture.

He sighed; they were more persistent than usual today. "My instructions were clear: to assassinate the king of Nan Fang. You all were told that we would assassinate the prince, as way of diversion."

"Diversion against _who?"_

"Those intruders," One of the _dao_ wielders looked up at him, eyes wide. "Against them. Right? Because they knew we would be there. So you purposely set this up to make it look like a plot against the prince's life. Am I wrong?"

"Ehhh?" Their pink haired companion, who had been fiddling with his _jiéshi_ looked up in surprise. "Really? You did?" He felt all their eyes gather on him once again, collectively. 

"Yes," he responded, calm. "I was aware that we would have interference from some other party."

"Who were they?"

"A traitor and her two lackeys," His voice emotionless, he waved away an oncoming bird, a strange combination of duck and turtle, with a flat beak and angry, gleaming eyes. It squawked in fury ー they were likely in the creature's territory ー but he shot it away with a small blast of flame, forcing the creature to flap away, crying in misery. Behind him he heard the group's other mage give an impressed whistle. "Our allies in Dongfang warned me someone was likely working against us. Apparently some child got wind of our work with Azure and found it wasn't to her liking. According to our allies, she was nearly captured some distance from their border with Beifang, but they lost her after some travelers interfered. It seems they were last seen headed to Nan Fang; our spies across the east saw them multiple times heading along the southern route. The fools probably don't even realize their cover was blown." His mouth twitched slightly into the beginnings of a smirk. "How unfortunate for them."

"No wonder you were so calm when you saw them," commented the scimitar wielder. "You knew they were coming."

"On that note," the _dadao_ wielder frowned, "Weren't you saying there were gonna be... others? Right? Something about Dongfang andー"

"Oh, _that._ This guy here," A thumb was jabbed at their injured companion, whose side was, indeed, still dark with dried blood. "He said he heard someone from Dongfang was in Nan Fang, but we never ran into them."

"It wasn't a cause of concern _then,_ " snapped the man in question. "But I thought it was worth investigating."

"Well, we never needed to. I _told_ you guys there was gonna be interference from another kingdom, see?"

"Yeah, but you didn't specify anyone. How were we supposed to work around that?"

Before they could devolve into another argument, the scimitar wielder quickly waved his hands, trying to calm them down. "OK, _OK,_ enough. Look," Here he turned back forward, and asked, "So the roundabout plan was to throw off the 'traitor', who would've ー or actually tried to ー interfere with our job. I see that. But then what did you mean when you said the king's death wasn't our only goal?"

"It was to test those beasts, right?" He watched expressionlessly as the head of pink hair bounded up to him, casually placing a hand on his shoulder and pulling himself closer, in a conspiratorial manner. "Those weird large beasts you suddenly summoned back there. You were using your stone, but that wasn't regular magic, was it?" There was a grin on his face that defied the seriousness in his eyes. His tone, too, was light, but there was a nuance behind it that indicated he wouldn't let him shake off the answer to this question, no matter what. 

Even if he didn't answer them now, he realized, one, or maybe even more, of them would ask _him_ in the future at some point. And while he knew he wouldn't abandon or hurt his own companions so easily, he also knew that, for the sake of everyone's safety, it would be best to avoid questioning his motives too deeply; there was too much at stake, for one thing, and if someone pestered him about it, they also risked anyone else in the palace picking up on it. Logically, the best thing to do, he concluded, would be to assuage their doubts and questions here and now, but long years of swearing secrecy to higher powers above him had ingrained in him a sense of iron loyalty that made it hard for him to loosen his lips, even to old companions. 

He could feel their expectancy on their back, however, and his fellow mage still had a firm grip on his shoulder, eyes glinting, and he decided that, at the very least, he could give them a base explanation of sorts, just to satisfy them for the time being. If _he_ wanted to reveal their goal in its entirety, then he could do so whenever he so wished; here and now, however, at least to keep them quiet, he would tell them the minimum of what they wanted to know.

"Those beasts," he began calmly, "Were old magic. It's hard to use, almost forbidden at this point, but _he_ wanted to test them, once we had managed to complete their shapes to the best of our ability."

"What kind of magic was it?"

"A contractor's spell," he responded, brushing off a small fly that had landed on his sleeve. He felt the other mage's grip on his shoulder loosen, and the younger man calmly fell into walking next to him, slightly behind, likely remembering that he needed to let him navigate for the group. "It was around hundreds of years ago, back when the contracts with the mythical beasts still existed. Unfortunately, it's not a 'true' spell, in the vaguest sense of the word; it wasn't written officially, and it was a failure even then. Only people with royal blood could form proper contracts. 

"This spell was a 'replacement' created by researchers who wanted to understand how the contracts of the royal families worked. They didn't intend to contract themselves to anyone powerful, from what the texts said; they only wanted to see what sort of mechanisms bound the mythical beings to those with human blood. Unfortunately, the research was a huge failure; not only did it spark the ire of all four kingdoms, but they wound up angering the beasts themselves, and were punished for it. Horribly, too, although I don't know the details. But he and I wanted to test the spell once more ー he needs it, although I can't tell you all why ー and we thought maybe it could succeed. As you're all fully aware, there _are_ no mythic beasts around to punish us if we had managed to recreate and alter the spell, and even if we had failed, the spell was originally intended to be harmless, so we didn't fear the chances of something terrible happening."

"And you succeeded," Brushing his hair out of his face, his scimitar-wielding companion broke in with an almost awestruck voice. "You managed to recreate the contractor's spell."

"Not quite," The younger mage narrowed his eyes up at his senior, head tilted to the side. "Because while you used them for the assassination plot, you couldn't maintain them when you switched to another spell, right? That's different from how contracts work; before _jiéshi_ was discovered, people could naturally use magic, and the royal family could use magic _and_ maintain their contract at the same time. As soon as you broke off into another spell, those things disappeared, didn't they? Otherwise you wouldn't have used a teleportation spell; you didn't when we came here because it was a waste of energy, and you're not doing it now, meaning you probably intended to use those beasts to force a way for us to escape. But you _couldn't."_

"H...hey, man, you don't have to say it like that..." Behind them, their _dadao_ wielding companion broke in, nervously.

"It's true, isn't it? This was a test run, on top of being an assassination plot. Yes, our leader probably had a reason to want the king of Nan Fang dead, but it was also an experiment to see how powerful the spell was, and whether you had managed to recreate it for its original purpose, when even the creators could not. But then that leaves me with one question..."

"And that would be?" he inquired, secretly marveling at the deductive prowess of their normally most childish member. 

"Why did you send the two of us," Here he pointed at himself and the _dadao_ wielder, wincing; the stab wound in his shoulder blade was likely still hurting him, and he saw the youthful features twist into an almost inhuman rage, before settling back to his earlier serious expression. "To the palace's _jiéshi_ garden. I figured you had wanted us to find proof that they were using our harvest to power their own kingdom, like we suspected, but there was none of that. And there was someone there before us, too, when you said your spells didn't detect anyone." 

"For the record," chimed in his equally injured companion, "You yourself used a spell before we entered the garden and _you_ didn't pick up on anyone there. Which I found a little creepy, to be honest." He gave an exaggerated gasp. "What if the kid was a ghost?!" This was said in a light, teasing tone, to which a few of their companions snorted. However, the mage completely ignored him, instead looking at the group's leader, his eyes challenging... and froze when he saw him wearing an odd, small smile on his face.

"...what? Did I say something funny?"

"No... I was merely impressed by how quickly you managed to deduce everything. Bravo." He gave a few small, light claps. "I myself never anticipated you would have trouble in that garden; I was only trying to track a great magic source that I'd picked up in the palace. If you all recall, Nan Fang has a limited, almost nonexistent _jiéshi_ supply, so I found it highly suspicious that there was such a great magic reading, much less a magic reading at all." 

The group lapsed into silence, then; up ahead, they could see the trees thinning, and a cold wind unusual for the recent warmth blew through, making everyone shudder slightly despite the warmth of their cloaks. Carefully pushing apart the hanging leaves and flowers from the trees, the group finally made their way past the last stretches of the forest, and were greeted with the sight of a steep valley, sloping downwards. In the far distance, towards the west, they could make out the smallest of dark dots that indicated a town; it was located right near the Nan Fang-Xifang border, on their side. They all collectively breathed sighs of relief; the journey had been long, the job hard, and three of them had sustained wounds that needed immediate attention. The best any of them could do was use magic and their meager first aid knowledge to staunch the bleeding; the three would have to see the healers as soon as they got home. Which reminded him...

"What were you two arguing about, earlier, when you said one of the two who attacked you was a little 'off'?" he asked, pulling out his stone as he did so. From this distance he's sure he can afford one more teleportation spell, at least to the other side of the border. The last reaches of Nan Fang territory beyond the woods they had just got out of were relatively open, and while he doubted anyone from the palace would have the ability or manpower to search this far out into the land, so soon after the attack, he knew better than to risk it. However, he reflected, with some regret, this would likely disintegrate the last of his _jiéshi,_ meaning that any magic feats afterwards would fall on the shoulders of his younger magic companion. It's not that he distrusts the other's magic ability, but with the younger's shoulder wound, it would take more of a toll on his body than he would bargain for. 

"Oh, that," His _dadao_ wielding companion ran a hand through his wild hair, squinting in the distance; he was focused on the town past the border as well. "Yeah, one of the kids, this red haired guy, was able to see past his," He jabbed a thumb at his friend, who spit his tongue out at him indignantly. "Magic spell. The distortion one this little jerk likes to show off so much." Grinning, he poked the younger mage on the side of the head with his finger, earning him a glare and a smack on the arm. He yelped and pulled his arm back, grumbling, and before the two could devolve into yet another one of their pointless questions, he quickly followed up with,

"Do you mean he was able to dispel it?"

"Nah," came the response, with a shrug. "If the kid was using magic we would be able to tell. But there was no sign he had any _jiéshi_ on him, and I don't think he could've used any of the stuff in the garden; I mean, the energy coming off those things was already acting funny, from the beginning. It wasn't in a condition that even a pretty high level mage could control, and if he was that skilled a magic user, then that wouldn't add up to how easily the spell we used on himー" "The spell _I_ used on him." "Zip it; the spell _he_ used on him managed to knock him off his feet so easily. Like, way harsher than usual. I thought those things were only supposed to be able to put you to sleep for a bit, not blast you several feet into the distance and _burn_ you."

"..."

"Uh, did I say something funny?"

"........."

"Hey, man? I know you're usually quiet but _you_ started asking the questions so maybe don't leave a guy hanging...?"

"Hush, fool, he's thinking. Isn't it obvious? Just becauseー"

"If you say 'just because you don't think deeply doesn't mean others don't too' then I'm going to smack you with my scabbard until your eyes roll up into your damn head."

"Bravo! We're such good friends we can finish each other's sentences perfectly!"

"Alright, I'm killing him. Someone hold my cloak."

"Cut it out you two," With a sigh, their scimitar wielder gently tapped his shoulder. "What is it? Is their story bothering you?"

"...it is nothing of significant importance," He straightened his back, carefully holding up his stone in his palm as he organized his thoughts. Right now, their priority was getting over the border. "I will discuss it with you all at a later date... at the moment, we need to get back into Xifang. Hold your positions; I'll be teleporting us back now." They all nodded, each pulling closer as the stone began to glow with light and pulse with color. In mere moments, the light was soon engulfing them all, and right afterwards, nothing was left where they once stood save for a patch of lightly flattened grass, scattered with the smallest of broken twigs and barely noticeable to the naked eye. A wind blew lightly over the valley, and the forest was silent, no longer full of the chattering of the kingdom's unexpected "guests".

* * *

"Well, _that_ was certainly tiring."

"No kidding; I thought we'd have to track them all the way to the western-southern border."

"Oh come on you two; surely it was a little thrilling to track such powerful adversaries unnoticed!"

"It was an 'adventure' alright, but if it had gone wrong..."

"We'd all be minced meat?"

"Yep."

"Well now we've got a good look at them, and we got the information we wanted. And we're not minced meat, so everything turned out well in the end, did it not?"

"True... but what do we do with this information now? Head back to Nan Fang?"

"Hmmm, that might be best... If those gentlemen who just vanished were speaking the truth, then Dongfang is in rather deep with Xifang, and Beifang is too far to risk another long trek."

"Should we go report back to the mayor? He did keep his end of the bargain, after all."

"...Perhaps we don't need to sneak about in secrecy anymore."

"Come again?"

"We'll head back to the capital, yes, but this time, we'll approach the young prince, or soon-to-be king, I suppose, ourselves. I think it's about time we took to the stage too, don't you guys think?"

"Hey, if you say so, I'm down with it."

"Same here." 

"Wonderful! Come along then, friends; we make for the capital of Nan Fang!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New perspectives and some background/story. Some more reveals, and the PLOT THICKENS. 
> 
> Note: For the record, if it's kinda unclear, the "test runs" weren't the motive for the assassination. It was more like two to-do things on their list kinda overlapped and our friends in Xifang thought, "hey, this could work." So what was the motive behind the assassination? 
> 
> Also note: Kanon's explanation seemed kinda long, so I'll put it briefly; there is no evidence pointing to the "forsaken children" having any special powers whatsoever. People are just freaked out because magic kinda acts funny around them, and being "forsaken" usually means your ancestors probably did something real bad. Are they actually harbingers of doom? Are they actually kinda powerful? Who knows?
> 
> Also also note: In the Xifang assassin group, there are 7 people in total, at the moment. Their names I haven't put down yet, making it confusing, but if anyone needed a reminder, there are three dao sword users, a scimitar wielder, a dadao wielder (wild haired guy), and two mages (leader with the chokuto blade and the pink haired guy with the distortion spell). 
> 
> Stay tuned!


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pros of writing alternating perspectives: imagining yourself as the characters in the situation, and how they would each perceive and feel what's happening.
> 
> Cons of writing alternating perspectives: you have to write alternating perspectives.
> 
> ...kinda feels like the cons of any aspect of writing is that you have to DO THE WRITING not spit your ideas out magically onto a sheet of paper.

_The first thing he could remember feeling was a deep and crushing sense of loss._

_People who start with nothing inherently believe they don't have anything to lose. People who start with "something" can't imagine losing that "something" they possess, and will thus spend their lives, if nothing goes wrong, with it, likely never coming to understand their fortune. That was the philosophy he had begun to build as he grew up with a gaping hole in his memories._

_It's the people with "something", the boy reckons, that hurt the most when they lose it. He knows this because that's how_ he _feels. Unfortunately, he can't even remember what the "something" is, only that from the moment he opened his eyes, the first thing he felt was not the pain in his bruised and broken body, but the sensation of crushing loneliness and loss, and the knowledge that, before he had lost his memories, there was something else that had been taken away from him, only he couldn't name it. He couldn't remember anything. He didn't know why or how he had come to wake up in a derelict building out in the woods to the sight of two boys his age whose faces or names he had never seen before (not that he could remember anyone else), with pain shooting up through his tired and sore body. It was upon waking up that he immediately felt the loss, and knew that he had nothing for himself; not his name or his memories, nothing._

_At first he had felt a small sliver of hope that the two boys might know him, but that ray of possibility was dashed when they leaned over with him with the kind, concerned yet wary eyes of strangers, and asked him for his name. Something inside of him shattered like glass; he had no answer to give, and that felt like the greatest insult of all._

_They asked him more questions, but to each he couldn't give a satisfactory reply, and in the end, they decided to take him back to their home. It was when they described "home" that he realized he had no clue where he was, and then further realized he didn't even know ー or remember ー the names of any places. When they said "Crimson Kingdom", he could only tilt his head in confusion, and when they tried calling it "Nan Fang" it only confused him even farther._

_(Much, much later, after he had settled down, they would teach him the geography and history of the continent, supposedly from scratch, as he had no way of remembering if he had even had this knowledge or not to begin with.)_

_When he shook his head at their descriptions of the kingdom (he hadn't even known of any of the kingdoms), they had tried to lob the name of the other three at him, only to be met with the same result. The two concluded, as they helped him through the forest, trying to support his still aching body between the two of them, that he had some case of amnesia, perhaps from having hit his head. They would find out a little later that thorough examinations of his head had revealed no extreme wounds that would result in potential memory loss._

_The moments afterwards were imprinted in his memory; every conversation he had had with concerned adults, the examinations from Kaiji's grandmother, an herbalist, and a few other healing experts. Every sight his new friends tried to show him and every new bit of information they shared with him, building up common knowledge in his head from scrap, teaching and guiding and occasionally prodding fun, until he himself felt comfortable enough to join in on their banter._

_At first, he hadn't been able to tell them his name, and everyone had been at a loss as to what to call him. But examination of the pouch the two had found lying at his side revealed a small handful of trinkets: a handkerchief that was shredded beyond repair, save for a few remains of fabric; a small, chipped dagger which the adults whisked away before the children could cut themselves on the edge of the rusted metal; a few shards of broken glass that they surmised had been the remains of a mirror; an oddly shaped earring, missing its partner; and a set of stuffed animals, all filthy and damaged. Riku's mother had cleaned and fixed them for him, and they sat in a small row on a shelf in the Hiura family's house._

_The handkerchief had revealed letters in the language of the continent, spelling out his name, but for the longest time both families had scratched their heads wondering which reading was correct: there was his name, Koki, but read differently they could spell "Mitsuteru", along with a few other variations. In the end, he settled on "Koki"; it sounded more natural in his mind, and he had, secretly, liked that his name was almost equal in length with the names of the other two: short and simple. In his mind, it made their trio more of a unit than in just name. The issue of his last name was never fully resolved, and in the end they found him a good temporary one that sounded rather poetic when coupled with the letters of his own name, much to his delight. He liked to think that this point in life was when the person "Tendo Koki" had truly been born._

_However, even with his name, he couldn't get rid of the small emptiness that had chased him around persistently since he had woken up in the forest. He had secretly hoped that the birth of his new identity would erase the uncertainty he felt from the fading of his old one, maybe erase it from his mind entirely. But the more he lived in Nan Fang, the more he became accustomed to his life as Kaiji and Riku's friend, the more he accepted his role as NEXT's center, the more vivid the black hole in his memories seemed. And this sensation grew with him._

_But recently, he had developed a new fear, one that he would likely never tell anyone. It was baseless, and could be seen as completely nonsensical, and even, from a certain angle, overdramatic. However, the idea haunted him, especially now, with the oddity of the events going on ever since they had won the competition in town._ _He had a premonition ー or, to be more accurate, a fear ー that if he_ did _get his memory back, as slim as the chances were at this point, he wouldn't be able to remain in the position he had set for himself in life any longer._

_He hoped he was wrong._

* * *

Kanade's first impression of everyone who had gathered in the room to discuss the next steps to take to deal with their "threat" was that they all would have, under normal circumstances, been the type of people who would have gotten along horribly in the beginning, only to become the closest of friends after spending a good deal of time together. Ayanokoji Aoi, for example, would have likely been the type of person he would have argued with on a daily; or Kyogoku Takato, maybe, would have been the type of person he would have tried to avoid, simply because as people, they were almost polar opposites. He was pretty sure Naruse Kanon and Gen would have likely found themselves in plenty of chilly arguments, and he thinks the younger duo, Tendo Koki and Kyogoku Ryu, would have either been at each other's throats for how different their personalities were or would have become friends from the get go, although he can't say for sure. But either way, the whole group instilled in him that sort of image; a rather chaotic one, he mused, not wholly disregarding himself from that image. 

Even as his mind hovered over this, he was still completely picking up the words of the others around him; Kanon was currently discussing the odd beasts Xifang had set on them the night before. The ones that had... killed his father. 

"Those aren't normal spells," she was saying, "No one's ever heard or seen of them before, unless...?" She glanced around, and Kanade recognized the inquiry she was trying to make. He shook his head, and saw the others doing the same, with the exception of Koki, whose head was tilted as he tried to pick up the pieces of the story and loop them into his own understanding of the world. "Alright, so no one really _has_ ever heard of them. Trust me, if such a spell were more common, I would have woken up to the sight of bright blue dragons crashing into the pillars of the Azure Palace in Dongfang." 

"Why dragons?" asked Seiichiro, mouth quirked in slight amusement at her analogy. 

"Because Xifang's beasts looked like tigers," She paused, and then gave a slightly mocking snort. "Although they were rather ugly, for tigers. Lady Baihu would be so very displeased with her followers for those mock-up shams." 

"So those beasts were definitely a spell, then?" This came from Ryu, who had taken a seat near the only other person his age in the room, much to Kanade's surprise. He had been sticking so close to his brother just a while ago. 

"Yep," Said brother was currently wandering around the study, stopping every once or so often to examine one of the scrolls or paintings on the walls. He had suddenly stood earlier, muttering "my foot fell asleep", and had been padding around the room like a large, friendly dog since. "One of those cloaked jerks had a _jiéshi_ glowing this creepy weird color that I've never seen it turn before, but while I was dealing with them nothing particularly... magical was happening in that room. So unless there was a completely unrelated spell going on somewhere else, then he was likely controlling the beasts with his stone that time."

"They vanished, too, all of a sudden, according to some of the guards I talked to," Gabriel piped in, "Maybe that happened while Kanon-san intervened and saved us from that wall of fire?"

"More likely that they vanished _because_ he circulated his magic into a different spell, cancelling out the prior one," Kanon grimaced, "But you're probably right. So the mage with the _chokuto_ blade was controlling the beasts, but I suppose that tells us the spell can be cancelled out as soon as he focuses on another one, meaning it must take a considerable amount of energy..."

"But from the one man alone?" This came from Seiichiro, who was pushing up his glasses, a complicated expression on his face. "I admit I am not as knowledgeable in the field of magic as you three may be, but if what you're saying is correct, then I find it very hard to believe one man could have had the energy to produce so many of those monsters. According to the guards, there were several of them, numbering almost in the dozens."

"There was another mage, too, carrying the God's stones... the _jiéshi,_ in the garden," piped up Koki, rather suddenly. He turned to Ryu. "Was his stone weird? Maybe he did something, too?" For some reason, the younger Kyogoku brother's face stiffened at this, and he saw the boy's older brother and female companion's faces do the same. 

"No, the guy in the garden was doing a distortion spell..." Ryu shot the other boy a worried glance. "Remember?" The two had, earlier, recounted their own encounter with two other Xifang assassins in his mother's garden, for some reason, and how they had fended them off. The entire time, however, Ryu would suddenly take the whole reigns on the story, and Koki would screw his mouth shut, as if remembering something, giving Kanade the sneaking suspicion that the two of them were hiding the full details. Judging from Kanon and Takato's faces, they both seemed to know what those details were, but neither of them seemed inclined to disclose them as well.

Before the redhead could answer, though, Takato suddenly whirled around, making Gen give a startled jump from where he stood. "Oh! Hey, Kanon, that reminds me, what did you say is so special about a distortion spell again? Cos' I remember you saying something about how there's a specific reason as to why some people prefer using them, over invisibility or disguise or whatnot." He waved his long arms a bit, as if for emphasis, accidentally brushing them past Aoi's shoulder, earning him an irritated glare from the much shorter mayor.

Kanon sighed, but there wasn't much annoyance behind it. "Distortion spells take a much greater amount of concentration and magical talent to pull off, so it's hard for most mages to use them; it's not as efficient or easy as the other two anyway. But for the amount of concentration and talent it takes, it takes relatively little energy from the _jiéshi,_ making them much preferred to one who was, say, preparing their magical energy for another spell right afterwards. I can't think of an example, though."

Kanade remembered his own lessons about God's stones; in Crimson, no one really had need for magic, unless it was for some new innovation or feat. Most uses for magic in his kingdom had been swept away with more efficient, technology-based alternatives: advanced weaponry, new methods of faster travel, new sources of light and energy, and such. Nowadays, about the only thing anyone in Nan Fang utilized the _jiéshi_ for was for trading purposes with the other three kingdoms, who still relied on the stones plenty. He had only ever seen the things as children, when his mother had been planting one of her many gardens, and she had, for some reason, had some artisans and scholars help her integrate the stones into beautifully crafted lamps. She had told him the end result would be a surprise, and she would tell them their true purpose one day, but she had passed away before that had happened. 

Takato suddenly clapped his hands together, making Koki start, and Kanade found himself slightly amused by how every little action from the tall man could somehow startle everyone else so easily. It was the suddenness with which he did things, which he found he didn't dislike all that much, despite its unexpectedness. "That's it! Ryu was telling me that it was weird that the other mage hadn't used a more efficient spell for disguise, or simply worn a cloak like his pals. What if he was acting as a buffer for the other mage? Like giving him energy, or something?"

"That..." Kanon frowned. "No, that... wouldn't work. Because then he should have kept the other closer to him; it's the best and most efficient way to use a buffer. Using from a distance means a lot of magic gets wasted making it along the connected flow, and the further apart the more magic breaks off from the connection and gets lost back to nature. So it seems extremely inefficient that they would bother with something like _that._ And he could have still acted as a buffer even _without_ the distortion spell, so I don't see whyー"

"To hide that he was acting as a buffer?" offered Ryu, but even he seemed to have trouble believing his own statement, because he shook his head. "Nah, but that still doesn't make much sense..." He glanced downward, and the group lapsed into silence, waiting for the trio to get their thoughts in order and continue, knowing they had something more to say. Takato had resumed pacing around the room, looking slightly downcast that his idea had been shot down so easily.

"Maybe he didn't know?" Koki, who had lost his chance to answer to Ryu's earlier inquiry, interjected, biting his lip, as if unsure of what he himself was saying. "I don't know that much about magic, but I kinda get what you're trying to say, so," He paused, taking a deep breath before continuing, "Maybe Takato-san has a point? It does sound weird, now that you've explained magic somewhat, that there was one person who risked their identity in that manner; he didn't have to use magic. He could have just used a cloak from the beginning. But what if the order of whether the 'buffer' was activated was reversed? What if the other mage forcibly made him into a 'buffer', and started sapping energy from him?" He glanced at Kanon nervously. "Err, is that possible?"

"It..." She frowned. "It's not normal, but it's not impossible. Usually, a buffer can only be activated when the magical energy in a stone activates, so the normal pattern would be to have the buffer activate the spell ー usually just an energy-sharing one ー and then the receiver can utilize the energy from the flow from there on. It would be... incredibly difficult to force another mage into acting as a buffer; for starters, they would need to get them to activate their magic somehow." Her eyes widened as if realizing her own statement.

"Bingo!" shouted Takato in excitement, and Aoi and Kanade collectively winced at the loudness of his voice. "He got him to somehow activate a low-energy distortion spell, and then he must've activated the connection between them that he set up at some point! That would make sense!"

"So what you are all suggesting," Kanade spoke, slowly, "Is that the combined energy of two whole _jiéshi_ stones was enough to produce that many beasts? And only through the efforts of one mage, consciously?" He felt his blood turn to ice as he voiced his next question. "Under that pretense, would that mean, with the use of more _jiéshi,_ they could do even more damage and summon even more of those monsters?" Next to him, Seiichiro's expression darkened with horror, and Gen opened his eyes wide.

"We don't know," Kanon shook her head, voice calm, but Kanade could sense the undercurrent of dread, and realized that she, too, had been considering the very same possibility. "I need to do more research. Which brings me to my formal request: I would like to utilize the resources of Nan Fang to research the current issues with _jiéshi,_ and this new problem with strange spells as well. I have already tried the libraries of Dongfang, and these two have scoured archives in Beifang, although they could not get their hands on anything from the capital. Xifang is, well, out of the question." She bowed her head, back straight, and her two companions followed suit.

"Please raise your heads," Kanade spoke, his own voice just as calm. "I would be happy to lend you access to as many resources as you need; there are several archives not just in the palace, but in the capital as well, and I will give you full permission to search them for whatever you need. Have you any need for assistance, we would be happy to provide it for you, and you are welcome to stay in Nan Fang for as long as you need, until we all find a way to resolve this issue."

Aoi, who had been sitting silently, piped up, "There are archives, although small, in several other towns in Nan Fang as well; I will try and reach out to them for further assistance, if the need arises." Next to him, Gabriel nodded firmly.

Kanon smiled, gently, and Kanade marveled at how different she could look with such a soft expression on her face. "Thank you, all of you." She bowed her head again. Takato happily pumped his fist, voice ecstatic as he proclaimed, "Yes!" with such happiness that the prince couldn't help but break out in laughter. Ryu shook his head, exasperated, but even he couldn't mask his obvious relief and happiness at having finally achieved their goal.

* * *

Gen found Seiichiro cleaning up the silverware after the room's guests had all dispersed; it was only him, his senior retainer, and their prince in the room, the former gently placing the teapot and cups on the small tea trolley a servant had rolled into the room earlier, and the latter carefully examining his father's most recent notes, which had been stacked neatly on top of the magnificent writing desk. Every once in a while he would let out a small huff or a sigh, and would place the papers off to the side, shaking his head each time. 

"Nothing, Kanade?" asked Seiichiro, after he had rolled the trolley off to the side. Gen made to go take it off to the kitchen, but Kanade waved his hand, beckoning him to come back and join their discussion. 

"No," sighed the prince, rubbing his temples tiredly. "I'm going to have the messengers check through the official treasury for messages again, see if there was anything there that was missed. But," He waved the sheet of paper he was holding with a look of slight annoyance. "If Aoi-san's guests were correct, then the messages from Xifang shouldn't have been sent so long ago that they would be in the treasury; Dongfang didn't start until they allied themselves with Xifang, and according to Kanon, that was only a few months ago. And if he was receiving them, accusations of such magnitude surely would've warranted quite a bit of attention, so I'm sure my father wouldn't have just stored them away so easily." He clicked his tongue in frustration, a rarity for him, and sighed. "But I've been checking my father's room and his study, and this stack of notes and letters I found is the last of it, so if there's nothing here, then I will have to hope he really did throw them in with the other records, as foolish a decision as that may have been." He winced a little at his own words.

Seiichiro shot Gen a glance, before looking back down at his childhood friend, concern etched across his face. "Do you know when the ceremony will be held?" he asked, gently, placing a hand on his friend's shoulder. 

Kanade blinked, and closed his eyes, as if trying to remember. "About a week from now," he finally said, softly. "The kingdom is in chaos, so first I need to establish myself as its official monarch, which," He widened his eyes a bit upon opening them. "I am, now. I need to check the kingdom for damages, make sure everything gets back in order, and then while I'm doing that we can... proceed with his funeral." He let out a weak, self-deprecating laugh. "Some son I am, prioritizing my own ascent to the throne over the funeral of my own father."

"It would be chaotic to hold his funeral too soon, anyway," Gen said, gently. "You're doing the right thing, Kanade-sama; you're worrying about the hearts and well-being of the people. No one has any right to blame or degrade you for doing what you are." 

"It will be alright, Kanade," Seiichiro said, soothingly. "You're doing wonderfully, especially with the chaos of these past two days now. And," he paused, before wrapping his arms awkwardly around his friend, likely conscious of Gen's presence. "I'm sorry that this happened to you, _now_ of all times. It's horrible, and I know, and if I could drag those assassins out of hiding, punish them all, and solve all your problems for you, if not bring your father back to life, trust me, I would. I want you to know I'll still be supporting you from now on, no matter what." 

The prince leaned into the hug, and Gen saw his shoulders stiffen. "Thank you, Seiichiro." He smiled warmly, and it was like honey dropped into tea, sweet and comforting. "You're always there for me." He took Gen's hand, who looked up in surprise, as well. "You too, Gen. Without both of you, I would have likely been unable to do anything right now." The young retainer felt as if sunflowers had blossomed in his stomach from the sheer amount of joy he felt at the gratitude in the statement.

"Not at all, sir," He shook his head, and smiled back, desperate to communicate even a portion of his own thankfulness. "We both swore to stand by and support you for all your life, come what may. It is only natural we grant you our aid in times of crisis like this. As meager as I feel my help may be, I wish to continue to offer it all to you." He saw Seiichiro's mouth loosen into a smile of his own, and the bespectacled young man nodded his agreement, earning the two of them yet another brilliant smile from Kanade. 

"I feel much better," Kanade carefully pulled the stack of papers closer to him, and gave them a light flick. "Thank you, both of you."

Seiichiro gave a small cough, and Gen saw, to his slight amusement, that the man's cheeks were faintly red, as if to mask his sudden embarrassment at the emotion they had all just displayed a few seconds prior. "Yes, I suppose we should get back to work..." He glanced at the diminishing pile of unread papers with a sigh. "But I'm starting to have the sneaking suspicion that we won't find what we're looking for all that easily here..."

"I think you may be right," Kanade laughed ruefully. "However, one can still hope." He lifted another unread document, flipping through it lightly, pausing every now and then, before shaking his head and putting it in the growing pile of papers they had already perused through. Gen picked up another paper himself, but when he saw the first few paragraphs ー an argument from the treasury painstakingly vouching for the efficiency of an enlarged staff ー he shook his own head and thumbed through the pages, brow scrunched in slight annoyance. Next to him Seiichiro had come around the desk from Kanade's side and was leafing through the papers they had already gone through, once more, pulling a sheaf out every once in a while, likely hoping to find something they might have missed. But the pile of unread notes on the desk steadily diminished and not a single one of the papers even _touched_ on foreign affairs with the other kingdoms: not a mention of trades, or threats, or tensions at the border.

"It's almost suspicious," Kanade frowned as he set the last of the papers aside; this one a document regarding a small accident with a caravan and a tree that had resulted in a town needing assistance from the capital for repairs. "How there's so little here on _any_ interactions with the other kingdoms whatsoever; I think I'm seeing more reports on new goods imported from the western continent than anything on Azure, or Obsidian, or even Opal. And there were only three of those trade letters." Behind the three of them, Gen could see the sun steadily setting, and he started at how long the day had seemed; after the hectic events of yesterday, today seemed to have dragged out much longer than the average day of any week, making him wonder how the others were all faring. The trio from outside had said something about properly sleeping "for sure this time" (Takato's words, not his), and the mayor and his assistant had decided to go write a letter to their town, asking his other assistants and employees to cover for him while he was gone. The young redhead ー Koki, he remembers ー had slipped out of the room after the trio, silently, without a mention as to what he planned to do next. But judging from the slight discomfort in his face as he moved his arm, wrapped in white bandages with hints of light burns peeking out from underneath, he was likely heading back to the infirmary. 

Seiichiro was looking at the three trade letters in question, his glasses catching the dying light and making his expression unreadable. "These likely are unrelated to our search... but you are right, Kanade. It _is_ odd." He pushed his glasses back, and Gen saw him bite his lip slightly. "I would think His Majesty would have had at least _one_ letter or document on anything regarding the other three kingdoms: our current relations with any of the three, tensions on the borders with Xifang or Dongfang, _some_ hint of correspondence with Beifang, anything. This is... this is uncanny, to say the least."

"It's almost as if," Kanade drummed his long and elegant fingers against the wooden top of the desk, gaze focused on nowhere in particular as he did so. "Someone got rid of the documents intentionally, for some reason or the other. Hid them away, if not outright disposed of them."

"You think a spy for Xifang or Dongfang did it? Or the assassins, when they snuck into the palace?" Gen gave an involuntary shudder at the idea; the walls suddenly seemed to loom around them, and he imagined ears and eyes hidden behind the doors, listening and watching to their every move.

"Not them," Kanade shook his head. "After all, Xifang sent those letters, according to... well, _everyone._ So why would they want to erase records of their correspondence? If anything, they would _need_ those for evidence, in the case they want to accuse Nan Fang of being the source of the _jiéshi_ disappearances. They were the ones making the accusations, after all. I cannot completely rule out Dongfang, but unless the two sides had a falling out which warranted the court of Azure wanted to somehow dispose of this 'valuable evidence', then it makes little sense to me that they would do such a thing. If the documents exist, then they have an excuse to attack Nan Fang, both politically and literally: they can claim the letters as evidence in a plot to steal _jiéshi_ from the other three kingdoms, and then our kingdom would be the one in the wrong, for having disregarded their accusations without dealing with them properly."

"So someone who _didn't_ want anyone to see the letters must have stolen them away," Seiichiro frowned. "But for what purpose? If they wanted to hide the contents from us, then I would have assumed they were with Xifang, but by that logic one would assume it would be more beneficial for our friends in the west for us to _have_ the letters, as justification, however weak it may be."

"It's not as weak as it appears," Kanade had absentmindedly picked up the pen in his father's ink pot and was twirling it between his fingers. "Problems revolving around magic are complicated: if one kingdom hoards the resources, it would be pandemonium for the others. So, even if it is completely and utterly baseless, if a kingdom stands accused of taking the _jiéshi_ for themselves then it stands to reason they must dispel such suspicions. Politically, I find it unreasonable, but on a much larger scale, it is a far more complicated problem then some may realize. _Jiéshi_ is a mystery to many of us, and it's a sore and delicate topic in politics and foreign affairs among the four kingdoms. Even if, from a normal standpoint, Nan Fang not responding immediately to accusations wouldn't warrant an attack on the kingdom, when it comes to the sole magical resources on the continent, I fear Dongfang, or even Beifang, would side with Xifang on the subject. In reality," He let out a slightly sardonic laugh. "Dongfang already has."

Gen groaned in frustration. "I feel as if I am in one of those endless spirals of questions in an overly complicated mystery novel. On top of finding out what exactly Xifang intends to do, as well as why the _jiéshi_ is vanishing, now we might potentially be dealing with a third party who wishes to conceal evidence to derail both our and our enemies' efforts? Goodness but this does make my head spin." He grimaced and rubbed his temples, earning him twin laughs from Kanade and Seiichiro, whose expressions were a mix of rueful amusement and agreement. 

"I agree," Seiichiro waved one of the papers in front of him. "Which is why I say we should prioritize the recovery of the letters first; if the messengers find it in the archives, that would be wonderful. If not, we'll have to find out if they were disposed of, or if someone took them." 

Just then, there was an abrupt knock at the door, and the three whipped their heads towards it in unison. Outside, the lights of sunset had faded, and the room had turned dark; Gen hurriedly lit the lamps hanging on the walls, carefully turning the knobs on the sides and adjusting the flame within. One of Nan Fang's many technological feats had been the creation of these adjustable gas lamps, in place of _jiéshi_ powered lamps, which were hard to control unless one was a mage, and, naturally, much more efficient than the old fashioned candles that commoners had utilized back before Nan Fang had made the switch from magic reliant. The flames wavered slightly, casting a soft orange glow about the room, and Kanade called for their sudden guest to come in.

A young maid, still in her twenties Gen surmised, entered, bowing her head apologetically. "I'm sorry to call in at this time," she stuttered. "Your Majesty, sirs, the chefs have informed me your meals are ready. Shall I bring them here, or..."

"We'll go to the dining hall," Kanade stood. "We need to serve our guests as well. Thank you." He offered her a gentle smile, and received a furiously red, blushing face in return.

"Ah... ah, also," The young woman fumbled with the handles of the door as she tried to hide how flustered she was. "Umm, two young boys were wandering around the palace halls earlier, searching for His Majesty. They said there were some people who wanted to talk to you, but for some reason they wouldn't come with them, and they were worried that they might have been talking to someone suspicious, and, wellー" she cut off, voice high pitched.

 _People who 'wanted to talk'?_ The suspicion Gen felt was perfectly mirrored in Seiichiro's face; his brow was scrunched, and he had pushed up his glasses once again, frowning. Kanade, on the other hand, looked perplexed, but he smiled. "Bring those boys to the dining hall; I'm sure it would be easier to talk there." He shot his retainers a meaningful gaze, and Gen casually picked up his _jian_ blade, which had been propped up against the wall, while Seiichiro calmly ran his fingers over his front, likely indicating a dagger or some sort of weapon hidden underneath. The motions were lost on the young maid who, after bowing several times, her face red enough to give a tomato a run for its money, scurried out of the room, likely to search for the two boys she had mentioned, and probably congratulating herself on not getting a nosebleed after _the_ Kanade, who was much, _much_ more popular than he gave himself credit for, had given her a task and thanked her.

"Well," Kanade smiled, and Gen watched as he gently picked up his rapier, fingering the hilt lightly, before letting Seiichiro take it for him. "Let's be off to dinner, then, shall we?"

* * *

Kaiji had a habit, Riku noticed, of tapping his left foot when he was upset and annoyed, and his right foot when he was anxious. When he was all three, he would simply pace around the room, driving anyone else in it mad. Like him. 

"Kaiji," he sighed, after the blonde had made his fifth ー or fourth, he had lost count ー round around the garden they had currently chosen to occupy, " _Please_ stop doing that; you're giving _me_ anxiety, now."

His friend halted in his tracks, looking slightly sheepish. "Sorry, sorry," He rubbed his head, but Riku could still see plenty of his agitation stored behind his eyes, and even now he looked ready to resume his pacing at any moment. "It's just... Koki is taking a _long_ time."

Riku grimaced. "Well, we _did_ sorta kick him out of the infirmary." 

"Yeah, and whose fault is _that?_ " Kaiji retorted, shoving him playfully in the shoulder. He brushed aside a few fallen flower petals on the bench before settling down next to Riku, jostling his friend over. "I'm not the one who ate all those tangerines and forced him to give up his bed." In reality, they had wanted him to stay, but with his bed commandeered by yours truly ー who had been suffering from an upset stomach ー he had seemed a little awkward and out of place, and in the end the two of them had let him wander out of the infirmary for some fresh air. From which he hadn't returned from, for nearly over an hour.

"I only did that because I hadn't eaten anything since yesterday!" protested Riku. "You dragged me all around the party before things went spiraling down to chaos, and I didn't even manage to get one bite to eat. You can't blame me for being so hungry!" His friend opened his mouth wide and started laughing, and he gave him an indignant kick in the shin. The other responded with another shove, nearly pushing him off the bench, and for a while their conversation ー or banter, however one saw it ー cut off into the two of them simply trying to shove one another off the bench. 

They were so engrossed in their childish antics that they didn't notice, at first, the sight of their red haired friend approaching them, only to be stopped by the call of someone else. However, his sudden pause caught Riku's eyes, and the momentary lapse in concentration allowed Kaiji to toss him off the bench, shouting victoriously as he did so, much to the raven-haired boy's chagrin. 

Next to Koki, although it was hard to tell from here, was the other boy their age they had met the night before ー although by then it had practically been morning ー who had helped Koki into the infirmary before the redhead had passed out. He had talked to their friend in private, but after that he had vanished into the halls of the palace, leaving Riku and Kaiji with only the knowledge, gleaned from their injured friend, that he was the one who had apparently been sneaking around on the Hiura's roof a week ago, had pointed a dagger at their friend's face, supposedly had the ability to turn invisible ('like a chameleon?' was Kaiji's comment before Riku had smacked him over the head), and had saved said friend from creepy assassins in cloaks with magic rocks and pointy swords. Met with such a self-conflicting description of rather large contrasts, the two had concluded that he was an odd, perhaps helpful, but decidedly dangerous individual; whatever he was involved with, it did not sound like the sort of fun thing kids their age would normally get caught up with. Even with Koki's insistence that he had wanted to stay at the castle and "see this 'conflict' (whatever it was) through to the end", the two boys had been rather adamant on him expressing caution around the strange youth. It didn't help that they had also seen him carrying a rather long sword, stained with blood, although Koki had kept telling them that the blood had come from the assassins, who, he also pointed out, rather sternly, were a much greater threat than the person who had used said sword to save him. 

The boy ー Ryu, their friend had called him ー was saying something to Koki, in low tones that didn't carry over the distance between the two pairs of boys, but he could hear Koki's voice, much more energetic than it had been in the morning, telling him things like "I'm fine." and "Don't worry too much; I can handle it." making Riku, and likely Kaiji, wonder what had gone on in the time he had escaped the infirmary. The sun was setting, painting the sky a vivid orange, and underneath their friend's hair shone a brighter red than it normally was, and, unable to stay silent anymore, Riku shot his hand up, calling out, "Koki! Hey! Where were you?!" 

Their red haired friend whirled around, expression lighting up, and next to him Ryu glanced up at the two other boys. Unless his eyes had gone funny, Riku thought the boy looked almost guilty, or awkward, like a young boy who has just made a new friend in the park, but can't bring himself to join in with his new friend's own group. It wasn't at all the serious expression he had exhibited in the infirmary, and when his eyes went back to Koki, the softness in them startled Riku. The redhead in question seemed completely oblivious; he had resumed his walk back over to the two of them, Ryu following not too far behind, rubbing his neck, grimacing. 

"Hey," Koki grinned, looking at his two friends in turn. "Why're you on the ground, Riku?"

"Cos' this jerk here," He jabbed a thumb at Kaiji, who smirked in triumph and cheekily flashed a peace sign. "Pushed me off the bench."

"Only because you started kicking me and telling me to stop walking around," retorted Kaiji, hopping off the bench and wrapping an arm playfully around Koki. "So it's kinda your own fault." He leaned down, though, and offered a hand to Riku, helping to pull him back up. He brushed off the grass and dirt on his pants, bemoaning the mess they had made of his outfit, which, he realized, he hadn't changed since last night's party. He dimly wondered if the infirmary would be willing to spare some patient robes for him, like the one they had given Koki.

"So your name is Ryu?" He smiled at the boy, who was about Koki's height. "We didn't really properly meet yet; I'm Odajima Riku, Koki's friend."

"Hiura Kaiji." Kaiji turned towards Ryu, who had stiffened at being so abruptly addressed. Riku saw Koki shoot him a slightly apologetic look, as if suddenly realizing the situation he had placed the other in. "We heard the stories, and they were very confusing." Koki jabbed him hard in the ribs, but the tall blonde barely reacted.

"I'm pretty sure we met a week ago," Riku tried jokingly. "Unfortunately, I think you're the only one of the two of us who saw me." Ryu winced a little at that, and coughed lightly into his fist, likely to cover up his embarrassment. 

"Guys..." Koki shot the two of them looks of exasperation. 

"It's fine," Ryu interrupted, "I mean, they've got a completely valid reason to be suspiciousー" "Plenty of valid reasons." "Kaiji, _shut up._ " "Don't interrupt him, you two." Riku shot the two stern glances, and Kaiji turned his head away in response, while Koki only stared at the ground, cheeks dusted a light red. In front of them, Ryu looked to be, much to his surprise, suppressing a smile, without much success. 

In the corner of his eyes, he saw Koki's face turn towards Ryu', and he saw the beginnings of a delighted smile flit across the redhead's mouth. 

"Like I said," Ryu continued, "Your friends have a valid reason to be suspicious of me." Here, he turned to the two of them and bowed his head. "I'm Kyogoku Ryu. I know I've done things that have probably given you both an _extremely_ negative view of me, but I promise, I won't do anything to harm Koki, and I won't let anything else harm him either."

"Ryu saved me in the garden," Koki interjected, his cheeks still red, "I told you guys, remember? I was attacked and he jumped in and saved me. He's a good guy, and he's," He paused a little, and shot the other a nervous glance, before continuing, "He's a friend. So you guys can trust him, too." He averted his eyes, purposely, and turned his head downwards a little, hiding his face, which was becoming more and more red by the second.

So, Riku thought, with a small hint of amusement, he likely didn't notice Ryu's look of utter surprise and delight at the statement; his whole face seemed to light up, and suddenly Riku knew that this was a person he could become great friends with, someone he would get along with. Judging from Kaiji's own expression, which had brightened up considerably, all suspicion and protectiveness (well, perhaps not _all_ ) dropped. 

"Thanks," Ryu began, and Koki's head turned upwards in response, only to suddenly drop back downwards as the latter suddenly crouched over with a wince and a small hiss of pain. Immediately, Kaiji had moved his arm from around the shorter boy's shoulders to supporting from the front, leaning in with a serious expression that was a complete one-eighty from his normally relaxed demeanor. He frowned and pulled up the sleeve of Koki's robe, before muttering, "The healers said the ointment they put on your burns to soothe the pain was only temporary and wouldn't last all day... it's pretty much evening; you need to go up there and get them to reapply it for you." The burns in question had apparently been made by a magic spell of some kind, and according to the healers the pain lasted longer than a normal burn, no matter how light.

(He had overheard them muttering something about how the effects on Koki's arm had been a little _too_ severe for whatever spell he had been hit with ー not that he knew ー and they had been scratching their heads over why that was the case. But he had only understood a fifth of what they were saying, and he had been more concerned about his friend's well-being than any mysteries.)

Kaiji had been noticeably distraught; never had the three of them ever had any contact with the God's stones, as his parents had called them; those were tools for the royalty, the stuff of myths and yore, much like the vanished mythical beasts. He had never imagined, not in his wildest dreams, that they would come in such close contact with the things, much less be attacked by them. 

Riku's body had carried him forward to his friends, and he saw Ryu start forward as if he wanted to do the same. Koki was glowering mutinously at the burns on his arm, as if through the sheer force of his glare alone ー which wasn't really all that terrifying, if he was being brutally honest ー would scare the pain away. The bandages had come slightly askew, and Riku gently wrapped them back around the offending arm. Koki steadied himself upward, and Kaiji backed off; the redhead's face was still twisted in pain, but after shaking off the suddenness of the bout of pain, he seemed to have grown a little more tolerant to the discomfort.

"I'll go to the infirmary," Koki said, glowering still at his arm, brow scrunched in vague annoyance. "You guys should head to the main hall; someone told me they're giving out food there, since there's apparently a few people, like us, who're staying in the palace, because of injuries and such. You two should go there and ask them where you can stay, Kanaー I mean, the prince was saying that there are rooms for the guests to stay in, but they need to see how many people there are, here, first."

"Are you sure?" asked Riku, firmly ignoring the growl of his stomach at the mention of food. "We can go with you, and then head to the main hall. It's not such a bother." Next to him, Kaiji gave a nod.

"Really guys, I'm alright. I just need to get some ointment reapplied; it's not such a big deal." Koki smiled and waved the offending arm around, voice light. Riku saw Kaiji's eyebrow twitch at the words, and he felt a rush of sympathy; Koki had a tendency to utilize the words "it's not a big deal" for almost anything, recently. He had said so when he came back from a fight, where a few neighborhood roughs had called him a stray; he had said so when he nearly broke his leg climbing the roof in search of Kaiji's cat (a search had revealed him hiding in a cabinet, somehow); he had said so just a while ago, before they had competed in town, when they had been concerned about the obvious preoccupation of his mind. Riku sometimes worries he and Kaiji had taught the meaning of the phrase to their amnesic friend wrong.

"I can go with him," Ryu suddenly piped up, much to the three's surprise. He had been so silent, Riku had briefly wondered if he had slipped off. "My older brother is getting us dinner, so I can ask him to bring some to the infirmary, if we have to stay there. And it's actually convenient for me, too; I wanted to check with healers about... something." He paused. "It's not just your arm that needs to be checked, either; your head injury might be acting up, so it would be better to get that checked too, while you're at it." Koki absentmindedly rubbed his head in response to Ryu's words.

"I don'tー" Kaiji began, his tone protesting, but Riku cut him off with, "That would be great, thank you." earning him a look of disbelief from the blonde. He shot his friend a look, signaling with his eyes, before continuing, "We'll go down to the hall, but if anything happens, please come and find us. And Koki," He glowered at his friend, who jumped a little, startled. "If I come back and you have another three injuries, or something, I will add to the list and give you an injury to land you permanently in the infirmary, got it?" The redhead nodded several times, beads of cold sweat gathering on his face, and he tugged Ryu's sleeve as if begging him to take him away from the cold, menacing aura his friend was giving off, behind his stern glare. Ryu, seemingly amused by Riku's words, gently fell in line with their red haired friend, walking with him back the direction they had originally come, leaving Riku and Kaiji in the garden, alone again, with the blonde glaring mutinously at him.

"Couldn't you tell?" Riku asked gently, once the two were well and truly gone. "I think Ryu wanted to talk to Koki about something. At the very least, I got the sense that his excuse about also wanting to see the healers was false." He smiled at his friend, whose gaze wavered. "At the very least, he was really concerned about Koki. I'm surprised Koki got so close to someone else, in such a short amount of time; he's usually so shy and awkward, and winds up saying weird things that drive people away."

"I don't think that other guy is much to judge in the 'weirdness' department," muttered Kaiji, but there wasn't much venom behind his tone. His cheek was puffed out in the slightest of pouts, much to Riku's amusement. Really, he thought with a rueful laugh, he and his friends really _are_ kids. "I'm just surprised you were so willing to let him be alone with him, seeing as how freaked out you were earlier."

"I was," hummed Riku, thinking back on the two as they had come into the garden, towards them. He remembers Ryu's face softening as the redhead had stopped to listen to and talk with him, and Koki's face...

Well, the best he could describe it was that it reminded him of the face he had seen Koki make when the two of them had first called him by his name. It had been a natural occurrence, a simple call for him to throw the ball they were playing with back in their direction, but he had never seen the boy look so happy, as if someone had offered him sunlight and everything warm in the world. He didn't even think the redhead was aware of this expression; he had never seemed to understand, to this day, why Riku and Kaiji had been so delighted after seeing him smile in response to having his name called.

"But I changed my mind," he laughed, "Those two are, mmm, what's the word for it..." He trailed off, looking out into the shadows of the woods beyond the garden. _Kinda cute together,_ he meant to continue, but stopped. 

In the undergrowth, he had seen, briefly, but clearly, a pair of eyes catching his own, before vanishing.

"Uh, Kaiji?" he asked, voice taking on a nervous edge, "Was there justー"

"Someone in the bush?" His friend's voice hardened, eyes narrowed. "Yeah, I saw it too."

"Should we..." _Run?_

But before the words are out, suddenly a strong hand is clasped over both their shoulders. As embarrassing it is to admit, Riku screamed in a voice much higher than he knew he could manage, and next to him Kaiji let out a startled, almost vicious shout, whirling around with his fist already set to sink itself into their opponent's face.

"Woah!" The voice was young, but still decidedly deep and mature. They sounded male, and understandably startled. Next to him, Kaiji had thrown a fist out blindly, but the person caught it, before continuing, voice genial and relaxed, "Calm down, kids. Sorry to startle you, but there's no need to throw punches like that."

Riku turned in surprise; standing behind them was a man in elegant dress, with a cloak of a deep midnight purple wrapped around his person. His hair was wavy and black, his features elegant, but a little scruffy at the same time. Behind him stood another man, this one with longer hair and a thing, handsome face, also wearing another cloak. The undergrowth shifted, and yet another man, this one carrying a long hunting bow, came out, shaking leaves from his hair. 

They were surrounded. Riku, remembering the events of yesterday and the perpetrators, stiffened, and he saw Kaiji do the same, fear and dread filling his eyes.

The man must have noticed, because he said, gently, "Relax. We aren't here to attack you like those folks from Xifang yesterday." 

"Xifang...?" He heard Kaiji whisper, and the man with the bow gave an exasperated sigh.

"Haru, I don't think everyone in the palace is aware of all the details of yesterday, and I'm pretty sure that's how the prince likely wants it. If you want to talk to him properly, perhaps you shouldn't go around handing out said details easily to any person we see?" 

"Whoops, you're probably right, Sho," the man, the one the other had called Haru, grimaced. "Talkative habit of mine. My bad. But," He smiled down at the boys, who had frozen up in confusion. "You two are staying in the palace, right? Don't worry; we're not attackers or anything. We just need the people here to spare us some time, if you understand what it is I'm saying."

"I don't think they do." muttered the long haired man, and the one with boy, Sho, sighed. 

"Look," He leaned in towards the two boys, and Riku felt his spine involuntarily stiffen. "All we want is for you to find the prince. We need to talk. It's urgent, and I don't trust the inside of the palace with it, not yet. _Please._ " He stared at the two of them imploringly. "We'll wait right here. You don't have to come back; just find someone to pass the message that we need to see the prince, immediately."

Riku shot Kaiji a glance; the latter had swallowed thickly, and was glancing back at him, with an expression of equal parts confusion and suspicion. But he didn't know what to do, and all he could do was shoot a glance just as desperate back at his friend.

Finally, Kaiji turned to the man behind them, who was running a hand through his hair, cat-like eyes squinted as if fighting back a yawn. "Alright," he said reluctantly. "We'll find him. But we're not gonna bring him alone, all right? Not after tomorrow, no way."

"We understand," said the long-haired man, quietly. "We're perfectly fine with that."

"OK," Riku sighed, fighting to ignore the heavy sense of foreboding drifting off of the men. "Just... stay here. We'll... we'll be right back."

"Tell the prince," called the cat-eyed man, Haru, languidly, "That a Haru, Sho, and Taichi wants to talk to him. Tell him, and only him, no one else, we _have some information about Xifang and Dongfang's movements."_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me: needs to reveal more plot points and stuff to get the story rolling.
> 
> Also me: I wanna write another fight scene. I'm bad at it, but it's fun. 
> 
> Oh well, I'll get my wish soon. (Kinda spoiler but not really)
> 
> Note: Yes, almost everyone has their own sword. Anyone who doesn't will likely get one in the future. Why? Because swords are fun.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The last chapter was monstrously long (at least for me; I can't write 10k for each chapter with ease like some other people out there, sadly), so this one is slightly shorter in comparison. Also the last one had more perspectives; this one has only two.

It must have been nearly midnight when Ryu finally woke up.

Shortly after he and Koki had entered the infirmary, the latter had been whisked away by one of the staff, who had begun to reapply ointment onto his wounds and had checked the bandages around his head, removing them and frowning as she checked it. When she had finished with the redhead, seemingly satisfied, she had offered them the furthest wing in the infirmary, where a new bed had opened. Yet another party guest had been healed enough to make their way back home, and the infirmary, which had been bustling with activity all morning, was quiet, half the patients gone. 

After the healer had bustled away, Koki had flopped onto the cot with a tired sigh, arching his back like a cat, before turning on his side and looking up at Ryu with glazed eyes. "Didn't you want to ask the healers something?" came the sleepy inquiry, and he watched as the youth's eyes drooped a little, before blinking open again. 

"Are you tired?" he asked, instead of answering, and he received a sleepy nod in return.

"Exhausted," yawned Koki, and he flopped over again, head facing away from Ryu this time, so he was faced instead with a mass of soft red hair, fluffy and disheveled. "That meeting was super, _super_ confusing. And I didn't think I would be running around the palace as much as I had." He let out another yawn. "What about you? You didn't get any sleep or anything, did you?"

"No," Ryu admitted, and after some trepidation, he sat down on the bottom half of the cot, trying to keep an appropriate distance between him and the other. "But I don't tire easily. I can't, not with all the recent stuff that's been going on, so I've been, well, unconsciously building stamina, I guess. Now I can go several nights without proper sleep, so long as I rest every once in a while."

Koki let out a muffled snort. "That sounds _extremely_ unhealthy," he said, carefully curling himself up on the top half of the cot as he did so, making his voice harder to hear. "You should rest, too."

"It's fine," he replied, a little gruffly, in spite of himself. "I'll just... wait until you've rested up."

This was met with a soft laugh, and then redhead turned his head toward him. "You say that, but I can tell you're tired, too. You weren't moving as fast or as carefully as you were before, and you keep blinking like that, like you're trying to chase the sleepiness away." He buried his head against the soft sheets, and Ryu immediately deduced that he was already in a half-asleep stupor; his voice sounded a little more... giggly, or airy, and even his words trailed off into soft, barely perceptible muttering.

"How can you tell?" he asked, surprised at the powers of the other boy's observation. "I don't think that's normally the sort of thing people look out for, in strangers."

Koki's eyes slid open a fraction, before he shut them again, muttering, "We're not 'strangers', we're friends. I said so to Kaiji and Riku, didn't I?" There was an edge of slight displeasure in his tone.

"Alright, not strangers, then." Ryu said, gently, to appease him. He tried to ignore the happy feeling in his stomach at the word "friends"; how it felt like bubbles rising in him, colorful and free, evoking feelings of childish delight and excitement. 

He had never really dwelled much on the idea of having friends; ever since he was small, he had stuck to his older brother like a shadow, following him wherever he went. Takato was his landline to other people, his anchor in the midst of faces he didn't particularly want to know. If Takato trusted someone, he trusted them; if Takato found someone untrustworthy, then he exercised caution around the person in question. Even with everyone voicing doubts about his brother's intelligence (he himself as well, at times), he had found that the older had exhibited an almost uncanny talent for finding the right crowd for himself, time and time again. He had a natural charisma, particularly around the boys their age and younger, and had been placed as a reliable leader of sorts. Ryu had merely followed him around, only trusting the crowds his brother trusted, and sometimes working to root out anyone untrustworthy himself. But he had never dwelt on the sentiment of friendship; in his mind, the best and closest relationship he allowed himself was with his family, no one else. He had resolved, for no particular reason that he could think of, not to let any other such intimacy take place in his heart. He didn't think he had needed such a thing, in the first place, not with such a caring and loving family on his side.

But the chaos with Beifang's missing people ー a few of Takato's friends among them ー had led them to meet new and strange faces: Naruse Kanon of Dongfang, who he found to be (although he would never tell her to her face) a reliable leader, if not too bossy at times; Suzaku Kanade and his retainers from Nan Fang, who were somehow both exactly how he had pictured royalty and were far removed from his negative image of them; Ayanokoji Aoi and his assistant, the former who was a bit prickly if not intelligent, and the latter who was a lot less thorny, and just as smart. And then there was Koki himself, and his two friends, who had seemed to find him relatively untrustworthy, although they hadn't been huge pricks about it. 

He didn't really know what to make of Koki anymore; he hadn't, for starters, imagined that the red-haired child he had accidentally threatened by chance would turn up at the palace to witness the unfolding of an overly malicious and mysterious plot, nor had he ever imagined that he would be a "forsaken child" or whatever it was Kanon had called him. All that aside, he seemed to be truly just a boy in every sense of the word: a little air-headed, but passionate, with his own occasional serious and silly moments. A normal kid who should have had a normal life, except he apparently had cursed blood, amnesia (which he himself had almost forgotten about), and had saved his life and accidentally bloodied his own hands in the process. There was gratitude there, but it was more than just that, Ryu realized. For once in his life, he found himself being _just like_ Takato, which he had always aspired to do. Not in just strength of body, but in soul. 

He found himself wanting to befriend the boy in front of him. He wanted to understand this energetic, slightly odd, but definitely kindhearted boy with the wine-red hair, who was so trusting and open that he had fallen asleep right in front of Ryu, who had, he remembers with a wince, pointed a dagger at him not that long ago. Yes, a lot had happened since then, but if Ryu had been in his position, he would have hardly felt safe enough to fall asleep in front of such a person. 

Holding his breath, he leaned in close to the other, watching his chest rise and fall with his even breathing, and saw that he was truly asleep. It made him marvel at the boy; was this completely defenselessness a result of his own willingness to trust others, or was he simply naive? He didn't know, but staring at the sleeping redhead, he felt he understood what those two friends of his were so protective over, why they had been so worried to leave him with a stranger like Ryu.

(It made him wonder why the black-haired one had been so willing, all of a sudden, to let him take Koki to the infirmary, under the pretense that he had had business there too.)

Ryu hadn't needed anything from the healers, and he hadn't particularly intended to question Koki further about the problems in the _jiéshi_ garden, or his aversion to it. He had simply wanted to be with the other a little longer, a thought that had come as a surprise to himself. His brother had teased him about being such a lone wolf, but his actions right now, he thought, with a rush of embarrassment that made his cheeks burn, were those of an overprotective hound. 

_If Takato heard of this,_ he thought, shaking his head, _I wouldn't hear the end of it. Actually, not just him; I wouldn't hear the end of it from **Kanon** either, with how nosy and bossy she is sometimes. _Even as he thought this, his finger strayed lightly over a few strands of the dark red hair, glinting a deeper crimson in the candlelight. It felt somewhat like fate that someone with such beautiful red hair, he mused, fingers running lightly over the other's bangs, had been raised, if not born, in a place with the moniker "the Crimson Kingdom". 

He doesn't remember how long he had sat there like that, but at some point he must have dozed off, because he shot up in the dark; someone had turned off the candles in the infirmary, and the whole room was filled with a peaceful silence appropriate to the night. Outside, he could hear the soft call of an owl, and the far-off howl of some beast in the distance entered his ears. The remaining patients had all fallen asleep, like the two of them. He realized, his cheeks flaring red, that he had fallen asleep on the same cot as the redhead; he had been curled up, slightly, at the foot of the bed, leaving him with a slight ache in his joints here and there. Koki was still asleep, delicate hands clasping the white sheets, breathing even and peaceful. His legs were dangling over the edge of the bed, and Ryu wondered if that had been intentional; if he had intended to make room for him, or if he had merely been too tired to pull himself onto the cot in a proper sleeping position.

At that moment, he felt a small ripple in the air, the sign of a water communications call being directed his way. He didn't really like this form of communication so much; it took up quite a bit of magic energy, and unless one was skilled in most forms of magic (like Kanon and his brother, he thought with a small sting), it could cause some discomfort. There were mages, he had heard, who had never accustomed themselves to the odd ripples and distortions in the air caused by the call trying to establish a connection with the other, and it was equally hard to root through the various "flows" in the air surrounding them to signal out the one of the person they wanted to call. Kanon had given him a brief lecture on the spell, but he had never been able to utilize it, and even Takato, who had pulled it off successfully after the first few tries, had opted not to use them too often. "The closer we get to more people," he had said, "The harder it is to track down the flow of the person I'm looking for. I think even a tracking spell is much easier than this one, and that uses _way_ more components." Kanon had assented to his point; even she understood the difficulty of the spells, despite the frequency with which she used them.

Carefully picking at the distortion in the normal flow of the room, he mentally extracted the strange ripples signaling a call. This was the most common way to respond to a water call; to focus on the distortion in the flow, usually with some reliance on the _jiéshi_ and allow the sender to use that concentration as a guiding post so that they could fully establish a connection. There were other ways, Kanon had said, but those were hardly used, and could be dangerous. When Takato had asked her what the point was of having multiple ways to respond to a water call, she had scrunched her face and replied, "I don't completely know all the details, but apparently there are mages out there skilled enough to distort the flow of calls and cut off connections, or even weave themselves into the flow somehow and listen in on others' conversations. So I suppose the alternate methods act as ways to disrupt the possible interference, but disruption of any communications spells is extremely difficult magic in the first place." As he mused on this, he felt the strands of the flow carefully come together, and a small sphere of water began to slowly materialize in his palm, much like how the words of a fire message would slowly come together midair to form sentences.

Eventually, he could pick out voices, soft and low, coming from the orb. One he could immediately identify as his brother's, and the other he could recognize as Kanon's. The former sounded immensely relieved, while the latter sounded immensely aggravated.

(Not that that was anything new, though.)

 _Ryu!_ Takato's voice, quieter than usual ー likely due to the lateness of the time ー came reverberating through the orb, slightly muffled, as if he were hearing from behind a wall. _Where the heck did you go? I had dinner saved for you._

Ryu's stomach let out a soft growl at those words, and he thanked the beasts above that Koki wasn't awake to hear, or see his likely reddening face as well. 

Kanon's greeting was less friendly: _Where in the name of Qinglong did you even go?! Is thatー_ she sputtered, _Are you in the infirmary?! Is there someone with you?_

"It's Koki, and he's asleep, don't worry," Ryu glanced down at the redhead's still snoozing figure. "No, Takato, I did not put him to sleep using magic or any of those weird medicines and shit we bought in that shady dealer's shop at the border. It's almost midnight, and any kid his age would be asleep around now, normally."

 ** _You're_** _not asleep._ came the cheeky reply, and he shrugged in response. 

"I said _normally,_ didn't I?"

 _Fair point_ , Kanon sighed, and he could almost imagine her and Takato peering into the orb of water, faces close, and he could already picture the arguments that would ensue if they stayed in that position for too long. _So. What are you doing in the infirmary, exactly?_

"I wanted to make sure Koki got himself to the healers safely," he answered, honestly. Even if it was slightly embarrassing to admit, there really were no excuses or lies he could think up to get himself out of this one; he might as well admit it to these two, if not anyone else. "His arm was starting to hurt again, and I was kinda worried about his head injury; I'm pretty sure he slammed it against a stone wall and somehow managed to stay conscious for a not-so-healthy amount of time afterwards."

 _Yes, you told us about the head injury._ was Kanon's surly reply, and behind her, Takato asked, with genuine concern, _Is he alright? Those magic spells are not the kinds of things normal people should be hit with, ever, even if there was no killing intent behind them._

 _Even if those spells are not safe for non-mages,_ Kanon retorted, voice grim, _They shouldn't be flaring up with pain after almost a whole day. Yes, it would cause severe discomfort for a few hours, but the burns should have vanished by now._

 _That fast?_ was Takato's surprised reply. _Normal burns would last quite a bit, Kanon._

 _That's under_ normal _circumstances,_ she snapped, _Pay attention to your own words, Kyogoku. Magic was never intended to harm anyone; even 'attack' spells usually served different functions at their core. The one he was hit with normally is simply supposed to stun or startle opponents, maybe knock them back a bit, and it was usually used for hunting large prey. The wall of fire that attacked you all in the main hall, Takato, is, at its core, a fire spell pushed to its limits by the user, as was my water spell. The fire one was usually used for occasions that required the use of large flames, like for celebrations, and the water wall was to put out fires or prevent droughts. They shouldn't have long-lasting effects, normally._

Ryu remembered his father, years ago, back when he was still barely six, showing him a small _jiéshi_ stone that he had just finished refining. _Magic,_ he had said, _is a gift from the beasts, remnants of days past where they shared their power in exchange for coexistence. Magic holds no malicious intent, just as nature holds no malicious intent, and we must be thankful that the earth is so willing to bless us with this bounty of power. It's proof they wish for us to put the earth's magic to good use._

Takato must have been remembering the same thing ー or, at least, something similar ー because he followed up with, _'Magic holds no will ill towards the people' is what my dad always said. But if that's the case, why's it affecting this kid so badly?_

 _Didn't I tell you two already?_ Kanon heaved another sigh, and he saw her distorted reflection through the water shake its head, likely lamenting how she had to explain things so often to the two brothers. _He may be one of those 'forsaken children' I was talking about,_ Her voice grew lower in volume. _They're known to have an aversion to magic; they can't use it well, and it affects them in ways that it doesn't affect us: they can see through them, be hurt worse by them, and sometimes are tormented by simply just their activation. If he really is one of them, then that would explain why the wounds haven't vanished yet._

Ryu shot Koki a nervous glance out of the corner of his eyes; the latter was still asleep, breathing still even, but he could wake up any minute to the sound of their voices. He debated leaving the infirmary, but then he wondered if _that_ would wake the redhead up, and in the end moved to the empty cot opposite the one they had been using. He realized, with a rush of more embarrassment, that he could have laid down to rest in this one from the beginning. Even though he hadn't meant to fall asleep so suddenly, he still felt a rush of regret, although it was not as strong as he had expected. 

(He decided not to dwell on what that implied.)

"Enough about the 'forsaken children'," he snapped, his own tone surprising him. "I don't want to talk about whether he is one or not; it's not our secret to speculate about anyway. Let's get back on topic: why did you two call me? If it was to check where I was, then I don't see why you couldn't have come looking, or called me sooner."

 _We_ did _try to call you,_ Takato responded, sounding a little hurt, _But you wouldn't answer at all, and the connection was kinda fuzzy, so Kanon said you must have been asleep or something._ Ryu winced at the accuracy of the comment.

Before he could say anything, apologize, maybe, Kanon followed up with, _Well, regardless, we couldn't go looking for you either. We had our hands full with some new information._ At the words "new information", her tone suddenly seemed to crackle with a little more energy, and he could almost see her fidgeting with her hair in her excitement. Or agitation; it could be both. 

"What kind of new information?"

 _The helpful kind,_ was her cheeky reply, _And this will interest you; it was those travelling bards or poets or whatever they're called who spoke to Ayanokoji before we did, when you both first got here. They told us_ _that they had done a little more digging around the week following their visit with the mayor, and that they also saw our 'guests' from Xifang out to the border._

"So they were tailing the guys?" He shuddered a little. "I hate to think what would've happened to them if they'd been found out."

 _Same here,_ Takato commented, his tone laced with relief. _Seriously, those Xifang guys do **not** play around, so those three took a real big risk tailing them all the way there. But it was worth it, in the end; they got their hands on some pretty interesting information, at least. Those weird shadow beasts that attacked, for starters._

Ryu leaned forward towards the orb of water. "What about them?" he asked, glancing towards the opposite cot; somehow, Koki had not stirred even once during their conversation, and he was beginning to suspect he could have crashed a gong near the kid's head and still be unable to wake him up.

 _Some **disturbing** information, to say the least. _Kanon's reflection in the orb wavered a bit, and the orb shuddered slightly too; a sign of distress, or some kind of mental lapse in her concentration, he deduced. _They told us that those... **things**... were experiments of some sort: some mockup sham of the contractor's spell that only the four royal families were capable of using. _

"You're joking."

_I'm not, unfortunately. Those three heard the Xifang assassins ー one of them ー say it, clear as day. That they were testing research for an old, defective spell; one that landed the entire group who made it into massive trouble with pretty much every entity in power. It was supposed to be used as a way to 'study the specific mechanisms of a normal contractor's spell', although I'm mostly positive that was the on-paper excuse. But it was a big failure, anyhow, according to what they heard, and it became mostly forgotten. I have no clue **why** Xifang has the spell, or how they even got their hands on it in the first place, but one can only assume that that was the source of those horrible creatures we saw the other night. _

"It was defective, alright," Ryu grimaced. "Judging from what I heard, those things sounded like nothing more than a bunch of hideous shadow-y beasts, only vaguely resembling large cats. If Xifang was trying to... I don't know, recreate Baihu, then they failed miserably."

 _So it would seem,_ Kanon replied, but something in her tone told him she was not convinced that was the case. _At any rate, it seemed that was the reason for the beasts' appearance at the palace; their 'mission' was also acting as a test run, it seems. There was no disclosure about why the king needed to be assassinated; interestingly enough, the leader of the group seemed to be the only one who knew, and the others were kept in the dark., if our informant is to be believed._

 _Sounded about right to me,_ interjected Takato, _I mean, I was running out after the prince, but you told me yourself; one of them asked their leader 'did you know this would happen', or something like that. If that's not an admission that he ー they ー were being kept out of the loop, then what was it?_

 _Fair enough,_ sighed Kanon, and in the orb Ryu saw her arm move as if sifting a hand through her hair. _But either way, this tells us **something** about those... repulsive creatures. Honestly, it's so disrespectful to the White Tiger, I almost have a mind to be offended on her behalf. _

"What else did they find out?" Ryu asked, before their companion could go into a whole spiel about the importance of showing proper and due respect to the four mythic beasts; the denizens of Dongfang, he had noticed, were probably the closest to "worshiping" the four as any of the kingdoms could get. Not just Qinglong, but the others as well: Zhuque, the Vermilion Bird; Baihu, the White Tiger; Xuanwu, the Black Tortoise. He remembered her telling them it was because Dongfang's history-rich and tradition-driven culture dictated that deities, regardless of alliance, be respected without prejudice. He also remembered sarcastically asking if that respect extended to every war the kingdom had thrown itself into in the past, to which she had chased him around with her _jiéshi_ for a whole hour, with Takato laughing in the background. 

_They said they couldn't travel far into Dongfang anymore,_ she responded, a slight edge of concern in her tone. Most likely, she had hoped they had gone into the capital and had come back with information in her place. _So they tried checking out the mines._

"Wait," Ryu had to clap a hand over his mouth from shrieking the words. " _What_?! The mines? The ones people keep disappearing to? They went there and came _back?!_ How?! No one else has been able to!"

 _They didn't go too close,_ Takato said gently, trying to placate him, _They followed one of Xifang's embassies to a local mine, the closest to the southeastern border they could find. They had to wait several days to track one down, apparently._

 _Once they had found one,_ Kanon continued, _They followed it for a good distance, but partway through they said they couldn't go on; they said something was stopping them._

"They got caught?"

 _No. It wasn't a_ physical _thing that was stopping them... They said that at a certain point, the air grew heavier, more foreboding. Like something with a really negative energy was waiting for them up ahead._ She paused, and Ryu imagined her chewing her bottom lip in frustration as she searched for the words best suited to voice her next thoughts. _How should I put this... think of the 'aura' a_ jiéshi _gives off; you can determine, somewhat, what kind of spell might come next; whether the pressure it gives off signals danger, or, on the other hand, lacks hostility. It was a similar feeling, I believe; the 'negative energy' was likely pressure that would force anyone to acknowledge the danger of the area. At least, that's the way it sounded to me._ Beside her, the distorted figure of Takato gave a large nod. _They told us they were sure that was the 'no return point'; that the people who went missing were likely vanishing beyond that 'aura'. They turned around, but they did learn something interesting from eavesdropping on the embassy._

"And that was?"

Here, Takato answered: _Xifang_ _is trying to activate some sort of magical spell ー the exact word for it was 'ritual', those guys said ー through their research. They only heard small bits and snippets, but it sounds like this thing needs a whole lot of_ jiéshi _to get itself activated, so they've been stepping it up with the research and these trips to the mine; kinda like the daily quota the town needed to meet each month, for Beifang._

 _The only problem,_ Kanon interjected, _Is that, from what they heard, they're missing a key; something that's necessary for the entire ritual's activation._

Ryu grimaced, "But there was no clue as to what this 'ritual' was, was there."

_Correct._

"And no clue as to what a 'key' might indicate?"

_None._

"And nothing on how the accusation of and attack on Nan Fang is relevant to any of that?"

 _Take a guess,_ came Kanon's semi-amused, partially irritated response. _I'll give you three._

"Right," he sighed, and the orb shuddered with him, to which he heard Takato yelp, _Careful with the connection, Ryu!_

Behind the two, he could make out a few distorted shadows moving to and fro, and he wondered where they were; with the others, most likely. He glanced at the quiet infirmary, with its sleeping patients ー none of them had, miraculously, woken up during his entire conversation ー and then glanced back at Koki, whose face was still turned away from Ryu's, fast asleep. He wondered if the healers had put something in the ointments and medicines they had given their patients, something to make sure everyone slept properly. It would explain how not a single one had stirred at all the entire time, even when his whispers nearly turned to shrieks, and the people he was talking to felt compelled to say things in loud voices at times, maybe because they thought it would make it easier to hear them through what amounted to a distorted magic bubble. Ryu suddenly felt a wave of fatigue hit him; a few hours asleep had, ironically, made him realize just how tired he was, and he saw the orb waver and shudder as his mind slowly began to loosen its grasp on the connection. 

_You seem tired,_ was Kanon's sardonic comment after he had hurriedly reestablished the connection, but her tone was more sympathetic than he had expected. Next to her, Takato was telling him to get some rest. _We're all about to turn in for the night, too,_ he was saying. _You just rest tonight up there, and we can discuss things again in the morning._ He nodded in response; the fatigue was overtaking him at frightening speed, and already he could feel his verbal functions tucking themselves into bed, leaving him with only the ability to use his mouth to yawn, much to his brother's amusement. The last thing he heard before Kanon abruptly cut off connection was her heaving another sigh, exasperation laced into every inch of it, before he was left with a dark, levitating orb of water that steadily evaporated on top of his palm, until it had vanished entirely.

Heaving a sigh of his own, Ryu flopped back into the cot, and immediately sleep began to overtake him, the faint shapes of the infirmary blurring, until even the ceiling looked like nothing but a shadowy, blurred wall, and then he felt his eyelids naturally close, exhaustion luring him into dreams.

As he fell asleep, he thought he heard the faint rustle of someone rising, moving about, but before he could even turn his head towards the sound, he had already slipped into the realm of sleep, promptly eradicating all thoughts from his mind.

* * *

Koki didn't know how long he'd been lying there, listening to Ryu talk to... someone. Judging from the voices, although they were oddly muffled and distorted, he was pretty sure the other boy had been talking to his two companions: his older brother, the one with the kind smile and the loud voice, and the girl their age, with the terrifying eyes and the sharp tongue. He didn't know _how_ they were managing to communicate ー no one had entered the infirmary, as far as he could tell, and he didn't feel any other conscious presences either ー but with all the stuff with magic and mystery happening lately, he told himself that anything was likely possible with his new friend, long-distance communication that somehow carried over other people's voices included. 

At first, he really had fallen asleep. His cheeks burned with embarrassment at the mere thought; not only had he been talking to Ryu in that state, saying things when his brain was half wrapped in clouds, he had fallen right asleep in front of the other boy. Putting aside whether it had been safe or not, it had been downright mortifying; he had curled up on a cot, and in front of another person's eyes, had fallen asleep on them. He'd never done such a thing to anyone, not even Kaiji and Riku; usually the three boys fell asleep around the same time, and even if they did, they were in their own beds. If any of them fell asleep mid-conversation, it wouldn't have _felt_ weird; it would've seemed perfectly natural.

 _This_ however, was mortifying, and it was only when he had woken up and felt the other's presence on the bottom half of the cot that he realized how massively he had screwed up, and wanted to throw himself through the infirmary window. He only stopped because the memory of Riku's threat to see him placed in the infirmary permanently if he did anything stupid and hurt himself crossed his mind. Beside him, he felt Ryu shift and slide off the cot, and he continued to lie where he was, wondering when would be a good time to wake up himself, without making things too awkward. He heard the other boy move to the cot across from his own, and just as he debated rising up himself, he suddenly felt a sharp prickle run over his skin, like the sting of ice. Trying not to react, he heard the other boy mutter something under his breath, and suddenly the air seemed to _bend_ for a second, before righting itself again. Koki desperately tried to maintain his even breathing, praying he hadn't done anything to draw the other's attention.

"It's Koki, and he's asleep, don't worry." Suddenly, Ryu began to speak, as if to thin air, and after calming down, the strange sensation subsiding, Koki fixed his ears on the sound. He could hear the faint voices, and that's when he realized, after forcibly holding himself down from jolting up in shock, that the dark-haired boy was communicating with someone, through magical means. 

He also realized he was technically eavesdropping. 

Koki debated getting up, but the seriousness in Ryu's tone prevented him from doing so. He was speaking in hushed tones, but his voice was full of a raw sense of urgency, and the muffled voices from beyond were also filled with a sense of grave seriousness. It was less he wished to hear what they were saying (although curiosity, as guilty as it made him, was an acting factor) and more so he couldn't find a way to sit up surrounded by the tension. Something told him he shouldn't be hearing any of this; there was an odd feeling of dread, as if he had stepped into a nest of pit vipers and only just noticed the danger. Yet another part of him was still listening in, with an almost detached calmness, filing away the details in his mind despite his better instincts telling him not to.

Ryu was talking about him; his injury, and how he was concerned about its effects on Koki, much to the person in question's surprise (and delight, although he wasn't sure if he could call it that). It made him feel a little fuzzy on the inside, hearing the worry in the other's tone, but he also felt immensely guilty too, for causing him concern in the first place. He felt like making people worry and feeling guilt from it was a repetitive cycle in his life, recently. Actually, he reflected, not recently; he was sure he had always caused his two friends endless worry growing up. On top of being an amnesiac kid with no basic knowledge whatsoever, he had always felt compelled to go headlong into things, and without those two to act as stopgaps, he would have likely hurtled off the edge of someone's roof by now. It made sense that they were as overprotective as they were, he thought, and he couldn't deny there was no small amount of happiness in the idea, despite the apologetic feelings he held for making them feel that way. Now the sentiment, he mused sleepily, ー lying there, trying to feign sleep, was actually pulling him back into the realm of dreams, faster than he thought ー was being reflected in Ryu. It was a thought that made him feel a little amused, but he also knew that if things kept going as they were, he would have _three_ guardians his age, all making sure he didn't throw himself into battle without any fighting experience personally. As heartwarming as it may have sounded, it was also a trip into more patterns of causing concern and feeling guilt, something, he thought while suppressing a yawn, he wanted to avoid.

However, just as he was settling back into the lull of sleep, having heard enough kind words of concern from Ryu, as well as comments on his injuries (yes, he knew, he had gotten himself injured and jumped headfirst back into trouble and action; he didn't need any reminding), to possibly make him implode from sheer embarrassment, he heard the words "forsaken child", and felt his entire body freeze, every molecule in his body seeming to stop in place, and he felt a brief flash of fear that Ryu had noticed the sudden stiffening of his entire body. 

_Forsaken child._

Where had he heard that before? He knows he has, somewhere, at some point, long ago, but he can't remember... He hadn't heard it from Kaiji, or Riku, or any of their family members, that was for sure. Not from any of the townspeople, not from the other kids, not from travelers, or customers at the Hiura's herbalist. He hadn't heard it recently, either, although he thought maybe that girl, Kanon, could have uttered something to that effect when he had first properly met her, but he had been too confused by her sudden change of heart about taking him with them that he hadn't paid much mind to it. But hearing the words again, so close... He felt a twinge of pain in his head, and he felt his eyes spin with confusion.

Where? When? From who?

 _What even_ is _a "forsaken child" to begin with?_

Behind him, he could hear Ryu still talking; they were discussing his injuries, something about magic, but it was all becoming incoherent in his mind, which had begun to fill with an irritating noise, like the buzz of wings. Suddenly, Ryu's voice took on a sharp edge, tinged with annoyance, and Koki heard the words, "Enough about the 'forsaken children'. I don't want to talk about whether he is one or not..." but they lapsed into background noise as he continued to speak. In Koki's mind, the words "forsaken child" seemed to banging on brass cymbals; those were the only words that seemed to pop out from the hushed conversation, occupying his thoughts and generally taking up his head space, until he felt he could hear or see nothing else in the world anymore, andー

_'Monsters like you need to be disposed of.'_

_Why? I didn't do anything._

_'Who the hell let you in here? I thought XXXX told you to stay inside.'_

_Why? I don't like it there._

_'If you carry out your mission, then everything will be fine. No one will hate you anymore.'_

_Why? Why does everyone hate me? What did I do?_

_Why? Why? Why? Why? Why, why, why, why, why?_

_Why am I the only one who has to xxxxxx?_

_'Well, I mean, isn't it obvious?'_

_?_

_'It's because xxxxx xxxxxx xx xxxxxx.'_

...........................

......................

................

When he came to, he was standing outside the palace, staring up at the sky, standing in a garden surrounded by hydrangeas painted deep hues of blue and purple and pink, all swaying gently in the night breeze.

_How did I get out here?_

Around him, he heard the soft trill of crickets, and a moth fluttered by him, wings soft and hypnotizing in their patterns.

_What was I... just... doing....?_

No matter how much he stood there, however, under the light of the moon and the stars, surrounded on all sides by flowers that bloomed with both the colors of melancholy and happiness, there was nothing out there to respond to his thoughts, which brimmed with questions that even he couldn't understand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When conversing in secret, perhaps it is best to not discuss a person when said person is in the same room. They may be sleeping, but you never know. 
> 
> So. Was that last part a flashback? Or something else? What do you think it might have been?


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A conversation with a bud, who knows I like to write but doesn't know I have an AO3 account:  
> "Fuyuki* do you actually keep a schedule when you write stuff?"  
> "? No??"  
> "Ok then."
> 
> *Fuyuki is my handle name for pretty much anything and everything. So feel free to refer to me by that handle (I would change my current name, but I've actually grown to like it somewhat, spelling mishaps and all).
> 
> Note: look up what a bakeneko looks like; I mention it later on this chapter as a reference, and if you're curious to know why then just search an image of it

_A week later_

Several days had flown by after their first hectic night in the palace. Before anyone knew it, a whole week had flown by; a week full of research, planning, discussion, and speculation. Most of the party guests had been sent home during the time, so the halls had finally regained some sense of quiet and calm, but there was an air of apprehension that ran thin through the palace, and everyone there could feel it, in the backs of their minds.

Kanon had spent most of her time cooped up in the archives of the palace, usually relying on Aoi and Gabriel's assistance with her search for clues and answers. She hadn't expected too much on _jiéshi,_ considering Nan Fang's low reliance on the resource, but to her surprise, her harvest wasn't as fruitless as she had expected. There were old texts, with notes half scrawled in hasty handwriting by someone from who-knows how long ago, and several small manuscripts that delved into theories regarding the rise of _jiéshi._ The common theory across the continent was that the stone was magical residue that had been left behind by the mythic beasts, which then proceeded to seep into the land and resulted in its accumulation within the minerals known as _jiéshi._ But there were several texts that spoke of different theories, to her fascination; most of this wasn't stuff she could easily learn or access in Dongfang. 

However, as intriguing as the texts were, none of them spoke of the possibility of the stones vanishing, or diminishing. They weren't, she thought, like rare gems or priceless furs; they were productions of the earth itself, and on top of that, because the land had always flowed with magical energy from the start (although humans had been unable to access it on their own), the idea that magic itself was diminishing from the continent sounded too off. When Gabriel had lobbed the theory at her, she had conceded that it made sense, but before she could counter it herself, Aoi shot the idea down.

"If it was a question of magical energy vanishing entirely," he had pointed out, "Then this girl and her companions ー as well as that lot from Xifang ー would have noticed troubles in the _jiéshi_ they currently hold. Magical stones still rely on energy coming in from the outside, if I remember correctly," Kanon nodded when he glanced in her direction. "So if it were a matter of magic withdrawing from this continent, then the stones currently being utilized would have noticed some effects by now. But according to them, Dongfang has been stubbornly putting up with this problem for almost two whole years, and as unbelievable as I find that, still, that information also tells us that this problem runs a little deeper than nature deciding we are not worth the power it provides."

It had perfectly summed up Kanon's own thoughts, and after a few lukewarm debates where they tossed suggestions and questions around, they had delved deeper into the archives. Nan Fang's palace library, she had discovered, was far larger than she had given them credit for; in her mind, she had built a sort of bias towards every kingdom, where she ranked them each in several departments. While she hadn't thought Nan Fang lacked in scholars, she had been sure that their repertoire of magical information would have paled in comparison to, say, Beifang and Dongfang, considering the aforementioned two were far more reliant on the _jiéshi_ than their southern counterpart. 

For the past several days, while she had been cooped up here, Takato and Ryu would come in each day, bringing food or telling her to rest. Takato sometimes dragged her outside, making odd analogies as to how she would one day become a mole, cooped up in the dark archives for so long, with no sunlight. Aoi and Gabriel usually stood and left without prodding, but her instincts as a scholar compelled her to continue her research. Ryu occasionally brought that red-haired boy with him to the library, and once, the two were accompanied by another two boys, and Kanon, forgetting who they were for a split second, had asked if he was intending to befriend every boy his age in the castle.

"They're better company than you." was the sharp retort, but it was undermined by Ryu's flustered expression, which the others hadn't seen; partially because they were behind him and partially because the sight of a girl surrounded on all sides by papers and books with slight shadows under her eyes and a murderous expression had probably freaked them out somewhat. She had chased them out after getting into another intense argument with the younger Kyogoku brother, and after threatening to set each other on fire, he left, dragging the other three with him. It was only after they left that she remembered that the two other boys ー the tall blonde and raven-haired boy ー were the ones Haru and his companions had snuck up on in one of the palace gardens, an incident that had immediately labeled him of suspect character in her mind. Nevermind that he had brought them some useful information, as vague as it had been (but was that anything new anymore?); in her head, if he had decided startling two children several years his junior was the way to get in contact with Kanade without, say, _using the front door,_ then he, and his companions, were a whole new breed of odd. The incident had unwittingly dragged the two boys into the whole mess, much to the horror of the boy with the wine-red hair; seeing how guilty he looked, after they themselves had somehow become involved, she felt a small bit of pity for him. When she offered to go give the older man a piece of her mind, Takato had stopped her, pointing out that he didn't think Haru seemed to be the type of guy to be eaten up from the inside from guilt over such things, much to her chagrin. He hadn't turned out to be an awful man, but his flair for drama had a habit of annoying her, which was half the reason she was just fine staying where she was. 

Today, though, she couldn't stay in here forever; she had almost forgotten, until Gen stuck his head in and told them the proceedings would be in a few hours. "We managed to wash your clothing, but if you want to wear something more formal, then I could ask around." he said, sounding slightly apologetic. "I think there should be a few semi-formal robes in the servants' chambers, if that's alright with you." Aoi and Gabriel had left the room at some point, leaving only her there; they had gone to help with the preparation and the proceedings, she remembered. When they had sent for someone to bring any manuscripts and books from the town, they had also sent for some wardrobe as well, particularly for this occasion.

In a few hours, she reflected, they would be holding the king's funeral procession. While she herself couldn't directly attend ー it hadn't been made public that she was from Dongfang and the brother were from Beifang, but it was still best to avoid being noticed by large crowds of people, especially after last week ー she had planned to be there at the beginning, and see the ceremony off.

"If it's OK with you," she responded, "Then I will take you up on your offer." She couldn't go dressed the way she was; it was clean, yes, but it had been lent to her by some of the female guards, and she looked like a warrior, not someone who was about to attend a funeral.

Gen nodded and hurried out, and a few minutes later, he was replaced with Takato, who was leaning against the frame of the entrance, peering in. "Yo, Kanon."

Without looking up from her notes ー which were only increasing in number and making her hand _very_ tired ー she responded, "Greetings to you, too, Takato. No, I have not gone outside today, but I ate, if you were going to ask."

The older man opened his mouth and laughed, a cheery sound at odds with the somber atmosphere that Gen had left behind. "Nah, I know," He threw her a grin. "Ryu came by and told me you ate the fruit he brought for you, and then complained that he should've brought something less messy, so that it wouldn't endanger your notes." He walked over, and threw his body on a chair next to hers, peering into the papers she was currently focusing on. "Wow, that's... a lot of writing. Your hand is all smudged with ink," He leaned over and grabbed her hand, much smaller than his own, scrutinizing it. "Does a hand normally get this smudged from a morning of writing? I don't think I've ever seen anyone get _this_ much ink on their hands before, sheesh. Your fingers must be cramping up like crazy." She batted away his hand, and he laughed again.

"It's fine," she snapped, but with half the force she normally used. "There's so much stuff, so if I don't write out what I must then, I'll forget it in the sea of new information." She leaned back on her chair, and she heard the pop of her neck and back as she arched her spine, trying to straighten it out. "There's so much ー _too_ much ー information; a surprising amount, if I'm being honest, but it's so complicated and tangled that I can't find a way to navigate from beginning to end, and how it loops back into our problem." As much as she hated to admit it in front of others, just this once, she was too much at a loss to put up a tough front. "It's almost pathetic how lost I am; like a fledgling student told to write a complicated research paper about the mechanics of the weather and how it relates to magic. A whole week, and I'm still drowning and lost, while everyone around me is moving in _some_ direction." She gazed up at the ceiling, high above her. "You're practicing sword-fighting with your brother, and teaching that redhead, Koki, how to fight; Kanade is moving forward with maintaining the kingdom on top of dealing with the grief of his father's death; Aoi and Gabriel have managed to enlist other towns across the kingdom to send any texts that could prove useful; even Haru and his group brought us some vital information, which gives us some hint as to what Xifang _wants._ " She closed her eyes, sighing. "It feels like I should be working faster, but I can barely keep my head above the water."

Next to her, Takato was silent, and she opened her eyes a sliver, wondering what had happened. The normally cheery man was giving her an intense look, and she flinched backward slightly, despite herself. He leaned over and placed a large, warm hand on her head, patting it consolingly like he did with his brother at times. She nearly batted his hand away again, but when he started talking, his tone was so serious that she froze mid-action, hand half raised to swat the large palm away.

"You're doing great, Kanon," he said, quietly, but with fierce determination, "You came all the way from Dongfang on your own, after trying to find out for yourself what the hell was going on over there. You helped us travel all the way down to Nan Fang, and you formulated all the plans of action we would take, every route and possible method. You saved our butts countless times on our way here, and you saved us again, when we were outnumbered by those Xifang goons. If it hadn't been for you, Nan Fang might've lost both its king and its prince in one night." He gazed steadily into her eyes, and his hand stopped, resting on her head. She could feel the warmth of his palm, and felt a small twinge of envy towards Ryu for having such a splendid older brother, not that she would ever say so out loud. "You negotiated with those guys, and we made all sorts of progress in what we know since our travels down here, enough to fill a week's worth of research. And even now, you're pushing yourself, when everyone knows full well how hard you've worked. You're doing a great job, Kanon," He flashed a smile, all brilliant teeth and gentle eyes, as if he were the living definition of the word 'sunny', or 'bright'. "You're the only one who won't acknowledge it. Information can't come speeding in all at once; this is a big problem, and we need everyone's cooperation. So stop trying to do everything on your own, alright? The two of us agreed to work with you for a reason, and there's no point if you hog all the work to yourself." 

She snorted at the last part, "'Agreed to work _with'_ me? I think you mean 'for' me, Kyogoku." Gently pushing his hand aside, she sat back up, stretching languidly, and Takato laughed in response. The notes on the desk rustled slightly as her arms shifted, but somehow the noise had less of a hold over her than the past several days prior. The older brother was good, she thought, smiling to herself, at these kinds of things; the heroic speeches that were simple from a glance but held a lot of sway once you saw the _sincerity_ with which he said it. No wonder Ryu looked up to him so much; she remembered him musing on his older brother's flair for leadership and making new friends. Simple he may be, no one could deny that it was a part of his charisma, which she felt she had seen only a small glimpse of. 

She didn't really reflect on it too much, but sometimes Takato's bearing and mannerisms ー which, at a glance, weren't so odd or special ー reminded her of _something_ she couldn't quite put a finger on. She hadn't met too many people with similar personalities ー everyone in Dongfang was always so uptight (or had a "stick up their ass", in Takato terms) ー but his was less a reminder of a certain some _one,_ and more reminiscent of a certain some _thing._ But she couldn't chalk it up to anything, and in the end let it alone. 

However, recently, she had begun to see a vague outline of what this quality reminded her of. More specifically, it had seemed to stand out once she had found herself in proper society once again, after Qinglong knows how long. 

_He sorta reminds me of..._ she was thinking, when Gen suddenly reentered the room, carrying the robes she had requested of him. Next to her, Takato threw out a casual greeting, which was returned with a polite nod. Her train of thought cut off, she pushed the notes to the side, her head still aching, but considerably less thanks to the idiot next to her. The three of them hung around there for a while, discussing meaningless topics, but in the corner of their minds, each was silently thinking of the funeral of the monarch, Kanade's father, as time ticked by. Under the light, the dust from the books rose, rising up into the beams of sun pouring in through the windows, like snow, but in reverse. Gen followed her gaze, eyes squinted as he stared at the soft rays of the sun, and the mahogany sheen of the archive under its light.

"It's such a beautiful day." he murmured, and the three of them all fell silent.

* * *

Haru had always been a man for dramatic flair and performances, and normally, on a beautiful day such as this, he would be out doing readings or singing and performing for crowds, large and small, preferably outdoors under the light. The sun was shining in all its glory, and he could see the greenery that was Nan Fang's territory from the window he was currently perched on, leaning precariously outwards (not that there would be much trouble if he fell, he thought, toying with the small _jiéshi_ in his palm), his hair blowing in all directions as a nice breeze toyed with it. Sho was behind him, casually flipping through a heavy tome he had snuck out of the library, and Taichi was humming meaninglessly as he observed the bustle of the lower floors below from another window, this one facing in towards the palace's main courtyard. Occasionally a servant would pass, giving them a funny sideways look, but today was not the day for such distractions. 

Today, alas, was a sad day, hence Haru's lack of activity under the sun. The king of Nan Fang had died, attacked by Xifang goons, and the whole kingdom was holding a proper ceremony to mourn his death. He could see the crowds gathered below; saw the somber colors of formal mourning wear on the denizens of the capital, and the simple outfits of the lower class, all amassed together to collectively grieve for their king's passing. Down below, he could make out the distinct shape of Kanade, surrounded by the imperial guard, as they prepared to take his father's coffin to the official burying yard of every royal, ever, where their ashes were kept. He could see it, somewhat; there was a hill rising up some ways from the capital, where a temple for the royal family was built. He could make out the shapes of the _torii_ arches, red and glinting against the greenery, and he wondered if the spirits of the dead liked playing around those arches; he could imagine the ghosts of all the deceased, returned to their youthful selves, happily chasing each other around the gates in spirited games of hide-and-seek and tag. No matter what people said about spirits and ghosts being terrifying, he honestly found the idea of it rather romantic and bright; the idea that good spirits lived happy, carefree lives after a life's worth of their own struggles and hardships. 

Behind him, Sho let out a soft hum as he flipped yet another page of the book in his hands, and Haru, unable to contain his curiosity, peered over, his body tilting precariously on the windowsill. "What have you got there?" he asked, snatching a glimpse of the cover; the title was faded out and covered in streaks left behind by years of dust and decay, the pages yellowed and making occasional crackling noises as they were turned. 

"Snuck it out of the library while the little lady's back was turned," his friend responded in a light sing-song voice, rapping the page he was on lightly with a fist, "Thought it wouldn't be missed too terribly, but I'll give it back to her once I'm done."

"What is it?" Taichi turned around, padding over to his friends languidly, inclining his head towards the two as to also examine the book they were hunching over. 

"An old novel," the hunter replied with a smile, "Or a collection of them, I should say. A lot of short stories have been compiled here, mostly under anonymous or little-known names. It's all very intriguing, although," He tapped the page he was on, the smile not dropping from his face as he continued lazily, "This particular tale I'm reading doesn't seem to be much for the 'happy endings' department. Nor does it seem the author was too fond of the royal families."

"Oh?" Haru let out a small, exaggerated noise of intrigue. "Do tell."

"It's a funny tale," Sho held up the book to let his two friends peer at the pages themselves, "About a family of intelligent and well-mannered researchers, all gifted with exceptional magical talent and a deep-set thirst for knowledge. 'No person in the land was as brilliant or innovative as they' in the author's words. They live towards the center of the continent, right near the four kingdom borders' convergence point, and they shared their knowledge and discoveries fairly with all four monarchs, in exchange for the right to operate freely, without the eyes of the royalty watching over them and dictating where and who their research to be dedicated to." He spread his arms dramatically, voice deepening as it did whenever the three of them would do a book reading in the remote and small towns they visited. 

"Sounds interesting," Taichi commented, "But would something like that actually work?" 

Haru knew very little about the "convergence point" of the continent, as it was called; he had passed relatively close several times, but had never gone towards it directly. It was a large and foreboding, albeit beautiful, forest, with trees that didn't seem to quite fit in in either of the four kingdoms, and there were enough rumors about what could be found at the center as there were stars in the sky. Some said the greatest treasure to be found on the planet slept there, while others whispered that the most powerful and pure _jiéshi_ ever to be found slept there. There were rumors that it housed a secret fifth kingdom, and some even believed that it was the place where the four mythic beasts had retreated to after they had cut off all connection with humankind. At the very least, what was certain was that there was an unspoken agreement between the four kingdoms that banned any of them from taking the whole territory and claiming it their own. It had come to be considered a sacred ground of sorts, and disputes and the like were strictly banned there. Once, the three of them had thought to explore even a part of the woods for just a little while, but they hadn't even taken three steps in when they realized that they could barely move forward; the aura the place gave off was thick and powerful; not threatening, but it had an awesome presence that would cow even a monarch from any of the four kingdoms.

"Who knows? It is, after all, just a story," Sho gave an enigmatic smile, before resuming with the tale, "The family one day sought to attain even new heights in their research, something that would surely 'bring an era of magical prosperity to all'," Here, he lifted his free hand up to create air quotes, his smile twisting slightly to become a little sardonic. "Which isn't anything new, to say the least. A lot of the stories in this book describe the adventures of some researcher or another, claiming to make a great new discovery, only to be properly scolded by the beasts for reaching for heights unattainable to them."

"It _is_ a common theme, my friend," Haru hopped off the windowsill, pulling out an apple from under his cloak. Taichi gave the fruit a regretful stare; Haru had seen him debating whether it would be considered a discourtesy to sneak away fruit off the royal family's table, and in the end had opted not to tread on that landmine of a risk. "After all, even with the beloved mythic beasts gone to who-knows-where for 500 years, the children of this day, even now, continue to be taught the lesson of never reaching for a greater power that goes beyond theirs, if there even is one. That's why I've always liked tales of adventure and glory more; at least our main character gets something in the end, whether it be the hand of a beautiful prince or princess, or treasure, or the blessing of one of the mythic beasts themselves."

"'Stay in your place and don't reach for those higher than you'," muttered Taichi, shooting the apple one last mournful glance, "Can't remember how many times I've heard that line up until now. I've always hated it."

"I agree," Haru laughed, "It's a silly lesson that I've always dreamed of going against, ever since I was small. As I said, those types of tales were never to my liking."

"Well, my friends, I did say this one was a 'funny tale', did I not?" Their companion waved a hand airily towards the two of them. "Yes, the tale ends the same as any other tale of its kind; the group comes under the ire of the four beasts and the monarchies, and is promptly punished for their transgressions. What I noted of interest," Here he turned a few pages forward. "Was that the author didn't seem critical of the family in question ー in fact, if anything, they seemed to be criticizing the monarchy; there's allusions and hints of the author viewing them as narrow-minded and small thinkers, incapable of looking forward or seeing the larger picture. In the author's rendition of this odd little story, it seems the _family_ was in the right, and they were unjustly punished by those in power who were unable to see the world beyond themselves."

Haru let out a small hum of interest, while Taichi tilted his head. "So what _was_ this 'research' that landed them in trouble, anyhow? And what was the punishment?"

"Well, to answer the 'punishment' inquiry, I can only imagine what sort they would have received after having fallen out of favor with the mythical beasts themselves, don't you?" Sho smirked. "There's death, and then there's the option where they get cursed by the beasts. There's also eternal imprisonment, or exile, or eternal torture, orー"

"I never understood what the 'curse' exactly was," was the muttered response, interjecting his friend before he could go off on a tangent, "Everyone alludes to or warns about it but no one has actually said _what_ a curse indicates."

"Who knows?" shrugged Haru, "At the very least everyone knows that whatever it was wasn't pretty." Taichi made a small noise of agreement, but his expression was still complicated. He turned back to Sho and asked in a voice brimming with curiosity, "So what was their crime then, specifically? What part of what they were doing angered the Four?"

Instead of responding, their friend silently turned the book around to face the two men, who had been craning their necks to peer into the tome. He flipped back a few pages, before stopping at a certain point and, without uttering a word, simply tapped on them. His two companions squinted their eyes to examine the spot he had indicated, making twin noises of surprise at what they saw.

"The pages have been... burnt? Is that char? Or ink?" Taichi frowned, bringing his face even closer to the ugly black marks marring the pages, spanning across several paragraphs worth of text. Haru could see the slight indication of words here and there, but they were barely perceptible, and without the other words to accompany them, they all formed nothing but incoherent nonsense, giving no hint as to what the contents may have been. Taichi tried rubbing it off, but his fingers remained clean and the marks didn't fall away. It wasn't ink, then, was Haru's first thought, and his second was that a vague curiosity as to why the culprit responsible for the desecration had gone to such lengths to hide... whatever it was they wanted to hide, but hadn't destroyed the book outright. He couldn't tell if this indicated the answers behind the scars on the book indicated some great treasure trove of information, or were not as valuable as the efforts to hide them implied; if their culprit had really wanted to hide the existence of whatever it was they were hiding, then they should have taken the whole book and destroyed it as well.

"It looks like they were slightly burnt," was Sho's quiet comment, "The material for old books used surprisingly thick paper, before the trees cut down for its production started to decrease. So whoever aimed to get rid of whatever had been written here probably didn't mind that the rest of the book survived; they only needed this portion gone, nothing else."

"Isn't that funny," Haru felt his lips curve upwards in a cat-like smile, and his two companions glanced at him. "Is this not just an 'odd little tale'? A repeated theme, with an author of different values than the rest? What could a _simple tale from a musty old novel possibly hide?_ " He could feel his adventurous instincts tingling, and he knew that if he looked in a mirror, he would be giving an excited grin wide enough to give a _bakeneko_ a run for its money. 

"That is," Sho said calmly, but with an undercurrent of anticipation in his voice, "If it really is 'just a story'." 

Taichi frowned and scratched his head, "Well, that _is_ intriguing and all... but does it have any relevance to our problem at large?" He tapped the pages with his fingers, brow furrowed. "I'm always up for a good and rousing mystery, but given our current situation, I don't think it's wise to open a whole new adventure out for us to explore."

Sho smiled at that, before pulling the book back towards him. "Actually," he said, boyish excitement creeping into his voice, "I didn't really pull this book out from Ms. Kanon's pile of books with much thought in mind. But one part of this particular story caught my eye..." He stopped flipping through the pages, fingers tracing over the ink, eyes narrowed. "Aha, here it is... The story refers to the convergence point as the setting of the tale, and while our book desecrating culprit managed to snuff out any description of what the 'crime' in question was, there was an interesting detail somewhere here; a dialogue between two members of the family, about the royal family's contracts. It's a minor, small detail, which I'm not surprised our culprit missed, but I don't feel the author would have added it to a fairy tale without a proper reason." He drew his face closer, fingers stopping towards the bottom of the page. "Here: these two young members are musing about the nature of contracts ー what they are, and why the royal families can create them, their origins, etc." He glanced up at his friends. "Musing about the royal contracts... does that sound familiar to you?"

Haru's mind flashed back to the day he and his companions had tracked the Xifang assassins as far as the forest near the southwestern border; there, they had overheard them discussing something about a "research project" involving a forbidden spell, and how their attack on Nan Fang had been the perfect opportunity for a "test run", if one could call the tragedy that had occurred such a callous term. When they had heard the conversation, the three of them, although they were loathe to admit it, had gotten chills; not only had that group's leader so casually thrown out the words and referred to their massacre as simply just _that,_ but not a single one of his companions had even been the slightest bit appalled or put off by its indication. If Haru, or any of the other two, had ever referred to such bloody deeds in such mechanical terms, neither of them would ever be able to fully trust the other. 

"So," Taichi's voice was hesitant ー a rarity for him. He drew in a small breath before he proceeded, "Are you suggesting this particular story has some relation to... all of this?"

"It might," Sho shook his head, all dramatic pretenses dropped. "But I can't say for sure. Yes, there are no _known_ records of anyone having tried anything like this mock 'contractor's spell' those men from Xifang were discussing, and while it's odd that such musings would appear in a novel which also conveniently happened to have been tampered with by someone else and blocking information, it's also not safe to say it's completely connected yet."

"But it _does_ add up in a way," Haru snatched the book out of his friend's hands; it was surprisingly light ー much lighter than he had expected. "Those Xifang folks said they felt safe testing the spell _now,_ because there are no beasts out there to punish them for trying. If what he says is correct, then the original creators of the spell met a rather horrible end, the 'not-so happy ending' this author here described." He slowly traced his fingers down the center of the page, gazing at the old and faded ink of the words, his two friends gazing at him worriedly. "There are hundreds of other stories out there like this: researchers who have tried to use magic to control the weather; researchers who tried to use magic to bend the wills of animals to their whim; even researchers who tried to control the minds of the mythic beasts themselves. Why weren't _those_ tales erased? They themselves speak of similar, grave insults to the Four, and yet they still exist, stories passed down to remind us to 'stay in our place.' And yet, this one tale, of research meant to extend contracts to non-royals," He turned his gaze upward, face serious. "Why have none of us ever heard of this? Is that not too convenient? And this one tale happens to have scars defiling its fine pages, blocking off parts of it from the rest of the world ー _the world that does not know its story._ Why is that?" He snapped the tome shut, resulting in a heavy sounding thud and a small puff of dust, but he was gazing back at his friends with an intensity that wouldn't be distracted by such minor details. 

At first, none of the three of them spoke, and in the distance, they could hear the steady sounds of bells as the procession for the funeral carried itself to the royal temple. Somewhere they could hear the soft whistle of a bush warbler singing cheerfully outside as it perched somewhere in the trees near the capital, and finally Taichi broke off the silence with a sigh.

"Sho, are you _sure_ you just **happened** to choose this book from Ms. Kanon's pile?" He shot his friend a suspicious glare. "It seems to me you chose this with a purpose." His arms were folded, and the hunter waved his hands lightly in a passive attempt to defend himself.

"You must be kidding, Taichi," he laughed, "I don't have the same magical talent as Haru or some of those kids back there, as you're fully aware. How would I have possibly known? Really, I just pulled it off the pile she had set out, since everything else was research text." He scratched his head a little bashfully, and the air around them seemed to lighten with that small gesture. "Also, it happened to be towards the top of the pile, and I didn't feel like moving the others out of the way and risk knocking them all down." At this, they all laughed lightheartedly, before settling back into serious expressions, each glancing down at the heavy book, title faded and binding coming loose with age. 

"Well," Haru grimaced slightly, "Good luck explaining this to the little lady, who I'm _sure_ will be thrilled to know you stole important information from right under her nose ー information that she herself might have eventually chanced upon." All three of them gave a collective shudder, and Sho paled slightly, before letting out a nervous laugh.

"I'm sure it will be fine," he said, although Haru noticed a hint of guilt in his expression, much to his amusement. "After all, I did save her the trouble of finding it." 

Outside, the bush warbler let out one final cheerful note, and Haru wondered if it was agreeing with Sho's statement, or was laughing at the eventual (and inevitable, judging from what he had seen of the girl) scolding he would receive from the young woman, who they had all seen pull out a sword and gracefully impale a bug flying around her head as she had tried to concentrate in the archive.

* * *

Several hours after the procession had left, Kaiji had gone back up to the room he and his friends, Ryu and his older brother included, had been given. As odd as the arrangement had been (and as reluctant as he had been for it), they had, all five of them, agreed to it, knowing that this was already a great generosity the kingdom was willing to extend. Riku had been quite cheerful with the arrangement, and for some reason he was often prodding Koki and Ryu to talk a little more to each other ー the two would delve into the most childish of arguments, only to suddenly be sitting near each other, with awkwardness hanging in the air and an apparent reluctance to say whatever it is they wanted to say to each other. It was almost comical, in some aspects, but whenever he saw Koki hesitating with his words, a part of him wanted to shake his friend until he spoke his mind, and another felt concern that perhaps there was something _wrong_ with the redhead; that he was perhaps feeling ill, or his injuries ー which had mostly healed over the week ー were starting to act up again. Riku only laughed when Kaiji voiced these concerns, however, teasingly telling him he suspected it was another thing entirely, and that it would, in his words, "take time to settle". He had absolutely _no_ idea what that was supposed to indicate.

When he entered the room, the only occupant he saw was Ryu, whose head had shot up when the door opened, but now turned away awkwardly when he realized it was Kaiji. Not that he himself had any room to judge; when he saw the only other person in their room at the moment was the thorny boy, he hadn't really known what to say, or how to greet them, and in the end he wound up walking to the bed which he had claimed without saying a single word to the other. Likewise, Ryu had also opted not to speak, because he glanced down at whatever he had been doing, resuming it with an admirable amount of concentration, although its intensity was not enough to dispel the uncomfortable air hanging between them. 

Kaiji saw Ryu was fiddling with a pointy dagger, carefully using it to carve away at a piece of wood, the chips flaking onto the mattress, covering it in shavings. The first thing he felt was a brief rush of shock at the sight of the weapon ー and also the fact that he was _in the same room_ with the person holding said weapon ー and the next he felt was genuine curiosity. The only thing that stopped him from outright asking what he was doing was the discomforting silence that hung between them; so thick that he doubted that even the stupidly long sword that brother of his wielded could cut through it. 

However, he wanted to know where Koki and Riku had gone; his options were leave without a word to search for them (admittedly rude), or muster up his courage and ask the boy, whose gaze alone sometimes terrified him, if not the outright sharpness of his tone, which he was beginning to suspect was just this guy's voice, not a threat. 

(It didn't make it any less scary, though.)

Finally, though, it seemed the other could no longer take it, because his movement suddenly halted, and he said, "Koki and Riku were looking for you." He clamped his mouth shut as if regretting something, but his hands started moving again, using the knife to gently carve away at the wood in his hand.

"Oh." _Smooth, Kaiji,_ he thought, wincing at himself. Even he knew he had probably just come off as a cold jerk. "I mean, uh, thanks... for telling me." Ryu glanced up at him with only his eyes, inclining his head in a motion that Kaiji took to be a nod. "Did they," he tried, clearing his throat as his tongue caught on the words, "Did they need me for something, or...?"

"Nah," Ryu shrugged, brushing away the small scraps of wood falling off his... whatever it was he was working on. "They only were wondering where you'd gone off to, since you guys all kinda went wandering off after the prince and the rest of the procession left the palace." He turned the carving over in his hands, pausing in his knife-work to scrutinize the wood. "Koki came back here a while ago, and we were just hanging out until Riku popped in, asking if we knew where you were." He resumed carving into the wood, thumb pressed carefully on the flat of the blade as he slowly peeled even smaller strips off the piece, likely getting into the smaller details. "So they went to go look for you." He shifted in place, upsetting the shavings lying on the sheets, and Kaiji watched as a few of them fluttered to the floor.

"Um," he blurted out, suddenly afraid of the awkward silence that would inevitably coat the air if he didn't resume talking, "Can I... ask you something?"

Ryu paused in his work, knife still cut into yet another strip of wood he had been carving off. "It depends," was his casual reply, "But go ahead." His face was expressionless, his eyes hard to read, and Kaiji wondered if he had been hallucinating all the times he saw the normally cool boy's eyes blaze with competitive fire when he and Koki argued, or the strange softness in them when he stared at the redhead when the latter wasn't looking. Sometimes he also saw his eyes blaze with happiness or fondness when he spoke with his brother, but he always seemed conscious of the three of them being around, and he didn't do it often in front of them anymore.

"What do you," he began, nervously running his tongue over his lips, "What do you think of Koki?"

The other boy's face slowly rose, his expression mixed up with confusion and surprise; he had likely not expected _that_ question to come popping out at him. He set down his knife and the block of wood he had been carving at, tone cautious as he responded, "What do you mean by that?"

"I mean," Kaiji stuttered, "He called you his friend, right? He said it after the, what, second time he had met you? So I just... wondered if you thought the same, is all." He glanced down, uncomfortable, and cursed himself for being unable to casually ask even a simple question in a friendly manner like Riku could. Of the two of them, he thought, Riku had definitely been the one to make more of an effort to get to know Ryu, although the latter didn't really seem to know what to make of that himself. 

Ryu glanced down at the discarded knife and wood, brow furrowing as if he were contemplating the question. "I don't," he finally sighed, "I don't really know. I've never... _had_ a friend my age, like that, before. And I'm still kind of... surprised, I guess, that he called me that, considering I..."

"Threatened him at dagger point?" Kaiji couldn't help but interject, and Ryu winced and nodded. For a while, they both lapsed back into an uncomfortable silence, but this time Ryu made no move to resume with his carving, instead playing with his fingers in a nervous manner. Kaiji could feel something like pressure almost radiating around them, but it was coming off of neither of them, consciously; instead, it felt more like the combined discomfort the two of them felt about how to interact with one another had created a shroud that settled over them. 

Even if he no longer felt Ryu was dangerous and someone the three of them should avoid, he still found it hard to be as open as Riku, primarily because he had no idea where to start with this guy. There were all sorts of aspects of him that made him remember that he was just a boy their age, but right as he settled into that line of thinking, Ryu would do something no one their age would normally do ー use a dagger to carve away at wood, for one thing, rather than a simple carving knife ー and throw him for a whole new loop.The fact that a long, dangerous looking blade was casually resting next to his bed did little to assuage his concerns, which Koki seemed not to notice, while Riku did, but tried to overturn. 

However, sometimes he noticed the way he acted around their red-haired friend, and he found himself completely unsure what to think of him anymore.

"Can _I_ ask a question?" Ryu suddenly inquired, his hand reaching back out for the carving, carefully turning it in his hands. He made no move for the dagger, and instead sat there scrutinizing his unfinished creation, eyes avoiding the blonde's own, so neither of them was looking directly at the other. "Why are you and Riku so protective of him? Yeah, I kinda get the sense he's not exceptionally bright, and if he does things like throw himself into danger for the sake of others on a daily basis despite having no knowledge of battle, then yes, I would say your concerns are justified. But," He placed the carving down, looking straight at Kaiji. "I sometimes get the sense that it's more than just his lack of caution; any friend would be concerned for someone like that, but you two... it sometimes feels like you're acting a little too concerned." His eyes gazed straight into Kaiji's own, unwavering, and the blonde felt his blood rush to his head. 

Without thinking, he blurted out, "What would you know?" he said, voice low, "Yes, you may be right; Riku and I are sometimes _too_ worried about him. But," He drew a shuddering breath, and gazed straight back into Ryu's eyes, trying to keep his tone level. "We can't help it. It's one thing if the three of us were all just normal kids, raised together ー well, Riku and I are ー but Koki, he's not." He paused, hands clenched into fists, and Ryu narrowed his eyes at him, noticing his obvious distress, without a doubt. "He probably told you, but he's got amnesia." Ryu nodded at this, and Kaiji continued, 

"Well, it would be one thing if he had hit his head and lost some of his memories, but in his case, he remembered absolutely nothing ー not his name, where he came from, what he was doing out in the middle of a forest, inside an abandoned house where we found him, covered in injuries from who-knows what; he didn't remember the names of any of the kingdoms," Here, Ryu gave a start of surprise; Koki had likely not mentioned this part to him. "He had no basic knowledge of _anything._ Not just the names of the kingdom, but even the most well-known parts of our history, the names of certain things and objects... we had to teach him everything from scratch." Kaiji paused to give a light laugh. "Luckily he learned stuff quick, so we managed to teach him about the same amount of stuff most kids our age knew by that point. And then we all grew up together." He sighed and sat down on his own bed with a thump, closing his eyes briefly. "But sometimes, the two of us ー at least, _I_ sometimes felt this way ー got the sense that Koki wasn't... how should I put this..." He groaned and rubbed his head, Ryu still watching him intensely, hanging on to every word he said. He suddenly felt a small rush of embarrassment at the intensity with which he was being scrutinized, but he couldn't stop talking now, not when he had dug himself into this.

"We got the feeling he wasn't fully _there,_ sometimes," Kaiji finally said, trying to extract his thoughts and put them into words that suited them best. "He would sometimes... go off into this trance-like state where even _he_ wasn't fully aware of what he was doing." He sighed, "It was a lot worse when he was younger; one time Riku woke us all up panicking and crying saying he couldn't find that idiot anywhere, and when we went out to search for him he had somehow wandered halfway across town and not realized where he was. So the two of us always worried it was a result of his amnesia, but lately it feels... different I guess, less scientific and logical. As if we can't take our eyes off him, or he really will go away somewhere; not wander off, but _actually_ vanish. If you want to know what makes us feel like that, specifically, well," He stared back at Ryu again, trying not to let his voice shake. "We don't really know. But we can't help but do it; if we don't try and anchor him, who will?" 

Ryu held his gaze for a moment longer, before turning away, his expression a little remorseful. "I'm sorry," he murmured, "I guess I just... had trouble understanding it. But it wasn't my place to say." He bowed his head forward in apology, and Kaiji panicked, waving his hands, trying to protest.

"No, wait, _I'm_ sorry," he said hurriedly, "I know myself it's hard for others to understand at a glance, so what you said is perfectly valid; I didn't mean to... to _blame_ you or anything, I just," He froze, before continuing in a voice much softer than before, "I just... really care about him, that's all." He ducked his head in embarrassment at the admission, and he felt Ryu looking at him after having raised his head. The other's gaze was hard to read, especially if one didn't even look directly at his eyes, but there was some hint of sympathy there, and understanding, and Kaiji felt he sort of understood Riku's sudden willingness to be more friendly with the newcomer.

"Yeah, I know how you feel."

Kaiji's head shot up, but Ryu's face was already turned back down towards his carving, eyes concentrated once again on his wooden creation, dagger in hand. Had that barely perceptible whisper been his imagination? Ryu's hands moved rhythmically as he continued to carve away, and through the sounds of wood being peeled away he thought he heard soft humming, barely noticeable, but sometimes threading through the silence of the room, which was no longer as uncomfortable as it had been a few minutes earlier. Seeing the slight dusting of red on the other boy's face, Kaiji realized that the whisper he had heard had definitely _not_ been a figment of his own imagining, and he felt a small smile break out despite himself.

_I think,_ he thought, _We might actually be able to get along._

It would only be a matter of minutes before Koki and Riku would come barging into the room, proclaiming happily that they had managed to find Kaiji, much to the two prior occupants' amusement. Then they would devolve into meaningless childish banter, with Ryu causally hiding the wooden carving from Koki's prying eyes and Riku's endless wheedling to see, which would be followed by Takato's (very loud) entrance into the room, resulting in complete chaos that would bring Kanon knocking on their door to shut them all up. But until then, Kaiji simply leaned back onto his mattress, surrounded by the sounds of wood being peeled away and the occasional hum of an unfamiliar song, no longer stifled by a feeling of uncomfortable silence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whenever I write Kanon I just picture one of my closest female friends and just make her speech a little more eloquent, and ta-daa, I have myself a grumpy, no-nonsense character who has to put up with a lot of idiots. The 'idiots' in this story are nothing like my other friends but whenever I write Kanon having to be around them I imagine the atmosphere is a lot like when the whole lot of us gather...
> 
> But we're all very good friends, I swear. Hopefully these guys will be too. They're getting there, as you can see, but it's a work in progress.
> 
> The last portion of this was less plot and more fluffy(?). It was supposed to be heartwarming. A break from this whirlwind of a plot that I swear looks chaotic when you look at it from a glance but has actually been planned out since I started writing this thing. Honest.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning! New perspectives and a big scenery change. We're not in Kansas anymore! 
> 
> Or so the saying goes, somewhat; I have a vague memory. Well, no matter. What matters is, I have finished another chapter! Hooray! 
> 
> (I didn't expect the word count for the entire fic to be so high; I just write and at some point I realized I was unintentionally forcing myself to write chapters that were at least 5k words long, after the short pieces that was the first two chapters, and a few others afterwards. I mean, there are people who write way more than that but for me...*goosebumps* The power of caffeine, my friends...)

_Hey._

_'?'_

_Do you... hate us?_

_'? Why would I?'_

_Because... well, you're stuck there all the time._

_'Yeah... but that's not because of you guys, right?'_

_...._

_'That's something that was decided a long time ago, so it can't be helped.'_

_....._

_'? What's wrong?'_

_Do you... want to get out?_

_'That would be nice. But that's impossible.'_

_Why?_

_'Where would I go? There's no one out there anymore.'_

_........_

_'... Are you angry at me?'_

_.... No. I could never be._

_'Oh... that's nice.'_

_.... Hey._

_'Hm?'_

_If you could get out... where would you go?_

_'.... I don't know. What kinds of places are out there?'_

_There's too many to count. This continent is so huge... But Beifang has lots of huge, towering, mist covered mountains, where strange and wonderful beasts live, I’ve heard. Xifang is kinda rocky in places, but there are mysterious caves that lead to the most beautiful underground caverns, with large ceilings open to the sky, and mysterious mines crawling with jewels and stones of all types. And Dongfang has the loveliest waterfalls and streams, all places of water, and it’s supposed to look gorgeous in the winter, when everything freezes over. And Nan Fang has the most green and lush forests, with flowers of all kinds, and all sorts of mysterious places that anyone can chance upon._

_'...... That sounds nice.'_

_Hey..._

_'?'_

_What's your name?_

_'...........'_

_If you tell me.... I'll try and get you out of there. And I'll take you anywhere you want to go. I promise._

* * *

_Capital of Xifang_

Typical mornings in the capital of Xifang always began with the sounds of someone or something either having a fight, or throwing a party, or even both, when it was possible. The denizens of the Opal Kingdom preferred to operate at night, meaning that if any other kingdom was to search for any proper "kingdom-like" activity, they would have to wait until the sun set; nothing too important happened during the day, meaning some of the less cultured folks across the kingdom deemed it the perfect time for some of their more unsavory activities. Even now, as Noire escaped from the wrath of morning fury that was Pierre, he could hear someone somewhere having a sword fight; the distant sound of metal smacking metal indicated as much. However, he thought, with a well-practiced ear, the swords were likely old and would break sooner or later; the noises produced as they hit their targets were warped, and judging from the dullness he could tell the idiots using them hadn't bothered with proper maintenance in years. It would only be a matter of time before either sword broke ー or perhaps both; that would certainly be fun. Maybe he could chase them around with his _jiéshi_ for the heck of it, although he would be scolded tremendously afterwards. 

(But it would be _so much_ fun, and if he weren't being chased around the palace halls by what one could mistake for an angry lion, then he would have totally welcomed the opportunity.)

Behind him, he could hear Daina, who had accidentally walked into the path of the landmine that was their chase, trying to appease a furious Pierre, and he slipped down yet another long and winding hall, trying to suppress his growing amusement at his colleague's fury at having been so rudely woken up by yours truly. It couldn't be helped; the man looked even stupider asleep than he did awake, and it was fun to wake him up in the rudest ways possible. 

Besides, the man had insulted his precious teddy bears yet again, after repeated warnings to stop, so really, he had had it coming for a long time.

When he turned around, he could no longer see the furious head of wild hair; either Daina had succeeded in calming the man down, or he simply had even less stamina than Noire gave him credit for. Not that it mattered, really; the point was, he had successfully pulled off another escape after messing with the guy, so he could happily chalk it down to his win for the day. When he had shown Pierre the "list" of their games of cat-and-mouse ー their list of wins and losses ー the man had angrily shouted "I didn't hear anything about a list! There's a _list?!_ " to which he himself had proudly replied that he had made it himself, and it was only natural that Pierre didn't know of it; he had never told him. Cue another round of arguing and running around, until Seiya, who had been practicing with his _dao_ blade, stuck his head out of the training hall and shouted at them to shut up.

Giggling to himself, and happily swinging his small stuffed friend around, he was about to keep walking when a voice from behind, calling his name, stopped him.

"Noire," It was Juukiya, who served as the leader when they ー himself, Pierre, Seiya, Chabo, Guerrero, and Daina ー worked as a team. "Running away from Pierre again, I see." While his words sounded amused and there was a trace of a smile on his face, Noire always found himself on guard against the man; his skills as a mage were several levels higher, although he hated to admit it, than his own, and his sword wielding skills were a subject of fear and awe as well. 

He gave his superior a bright smile, masking his unease. "Yep," he beamed, "But poor Pierre was too slow, 'cos I managed to escape. Again." He flashed a peace sign, holding his teddy bear up to his face. If there was one thing he could do flawlessly, he thought coldly in the back of his mind, it was play the childish mascot; someone who was known for being a little quirky and odd, but in a childish way that downplayed his own potential to harm.

"I see," Juukiya nodded, his smile not wavering. "By the way, have you seen Julian around today?" Julian was another member of their "team". He was also a mage, but his skills ran purely in the reconnaissance department; he used his _jiéshi_ to gather information or examine their territory on a daily basis. It allowed them to spend most of their manpower on the more _crucial_ things that needed to be done, rather than simple patrols through the capital or near the border. If something happened, their mages could teleport soldiers to wherever Julian directed them; hence, he hadn't accompanied them on their excursion to Nan Fang. 

"I haven't," Noire said brightly, shaking his head, "He's probably with the king now, don't you think?" He tilted his head, staring up at their leader without letting his smile drop. "Y'know, because Nan Fang's gonna have their king's funeral today." His voice was still childishly bright, but he saw Juukiya's smile also get a few degrees cooler, and a sort of pressure, very slight, built up between them.

"You are most likely right," was the calm reply, and the other's lips stretched a little as he widened his smile by a millimetre, "Thank you." He turned around, making as if to leave, and Noire hurriedly blurted out, before the man could slip off.

"Did you need him for something?" He tried to say it casually, but a request for Julian's whereabouts likely meant a need for his far-seeing talents. Something about that smelled of more plots and intrigue ー something that he and the rest of those idiots would likely be left out of, unless they were needed as backup. In the back of his mind, he wondered what his superiors would do if he announced that he would not work for them without better and more in-depth explanations to their plots. Cut off his hands, if they were upset, or maybe kick him out. Heck, they might not do anything at all, but that would leave him off the team and with no more answers than he had had when he was on it. 

"Why do you want to know so much?" Seiya had once asked him, after maybe the seventh time that day he had watched his teammates argue and fool around. "Isn't it enough we can work in this palace? It's enough for me."

"Yeah," Daina's voice had risen up over the racket of the others, "I mean, I didn't know if I wanted to serve a _second_ monarch, but he's not so bad, and I still have a roof over my head, which is nice."

"Sure," Noire had said, pretending to pout like a disgruntled child, "You may see it that way. But if we're gonna be told to risk our lives and pick fights with powerful enemies, then I sure would like to know _why_ exactly we're doing it, not just because the king says so." Next to him, Pierre had nodded in agreement, and Chabo had scrunched up his face in thought. Noire was _sure_ all his companions thought the same ー that they wanted to know what exactly was happening in Xifang ー but most of them seemed to be disinclined to voice that opinion out loud, leaving mainly him and noisy Pierre to continue running their mouths about the same topic ー the only thing they agreed on, now that he thought about it.

Juukiya didn't seem surprised by the inquiry; his lack of expression almost seemed to indicate that he had expected it. He gazed back at Noire, calmly, responding, "It's none of your concern." He turned his back to the pink-haired man, glancing back at him. "If you must know, I merely needed to discuss something with him. But if he's not around, then it can wait." And he walked off briskly, his pace leaving no room for Noire to call him back and probe any further.

"Oh, and Noire?" The man turned around for a fraction of a second, before facing forwards again. "I would be careful when using the word 'king' to describe him; you know how much he despises the term." Then he left, for good this time, leaving Noire standing in the middle of the large hall, holding a stuffed animal to his chest and staring at the spot his superior had been only a few minutes before.

He sighed; he was used to Juukiya's brisk and secretive nature, and he was just as accustomed to anyone else to being left out of the loop of pretty much anything and everything important. He doesn't really have much room to complain ー unlike some of the others, he hadn't served the _previous_ head of the place, and he wasn't one of the king's ー what else was he supposed to call the guy? He _was_ technically the king of the place, whether he disliked the term or not ー companions from the past. If anything, the others found him to be an oddity not because of his childish manner or love of cute things (although that was a factor in it), but because of all of them, no one could really connect him to a proper reason he was there. He didn't act particularly loyal or seem to have much interest in politics; Noire knew, to everyone, his presence was a bit of an oddity. It wasn't like he _needed_ a good and proper reason to be their ally, but because he didn't fit into the aforementioned categories, no one really knew what to make of him.

He was fine with that, though ー preferred it, even. And it didn't really make a difference; having changed loyalties or being old companions didn't give anyone else an advantage here, it seemed, in the information department. Everyone only knew what they were told, which was, usually, very little.

In the distance, he could hear angry shouting ー an angry _voice,_ to be more precise ー accompanied by other voices, all ranging from calm to flustered to pure annoyance. Noire slipped behind a corner, amused, and peered around the edge cautiously, waiting for the newcomers to make their appearance. 

"Gahhhhhh, I'm gonna _kill_ that stupid little pink-haired monster!" This was obviously from Pierre. His hair appeared even wilder than it normally did; likely because he hadn't had any time to set it, seeing as he had immediately started the morning with his almost daily chase of Noire. Gone from his face were all traces of sleepiness, but he was still wearing the loose outfits most of them wore at night, the top part askew. Next to him, Guerrero calmly fixed the shifting fabric without a single word of comment; his injuries from the sword fight a week ago had healed rather nicely, but Noire had seen the trace remains of a large scar on his side the other night, when his companion had caught the pink-haired youth's attention and asked him to spar. 

"Calm down, Pierre," Seiya's brow was scrunched in growing irritation, but there was a hint of slight amusement in his tone, "It's only the hundredth time he's done this to you, after all." At his side, Chabo gave a short bark of laughter, earning the two of them a look of annoyance from the man in question. 

At Pierre's side, Michelle, another one of their companions, was calmly holding Pierre's _dadao_ in his hands, likely to prevent his longtime friend from grabbing it and rushing around the palace to find Noire and smack him with the scabbard. He was, like Pierre, of the second category ー one of the "companions of the past". Unlike Pierre, however, he had moved up in the ranks and had a lot more access to information than any of them did; almost as much as Juukiya did, in fact. And while he, too, could be a notorious keeper of secrets, he was more easy to persuade than their stone-faced and eternally calm team leader, who had probably revealed more information in the forest of Nan Fang last week during their escape than he ever had for the entirety of the time they had all worked together. 

"You can tell me to 'calm down' after you've been woken up by _that little freak_ for Baihu-knows how many times, and all in horrible ways that no one should _have_ to wake up to!" shouted Pierre, his hands trying to take back his sword, only for Michelle to calmly move it out of reach. "Where did that little _fucker_ get his hands on that many clay pots anyway?! Who wakes up a person by smashing pottery against the walls using an improvised _sling?!_ Where the hell does the bastard come up with these ideas?!" Seiya and Chabo both collectively started laughing, clapping their hands together. Daina was making a face somewhere between horrified amusement and plain terror, while Guerrero just shook his head, raising his arms in a shrug. 

Around the corner, Noire patted himself on the back mentally for yet another job well done. 

Michelle sighed, "Well, I'm glad you didn't step on any of the shards, or that would be a whole injury we would have to explain to the others. Be grateful that he didn't use _all_ the pots he had with him; I checked your room and there was still a good amount sitting by the wall, ready to be thrown and broken."

"Seriously?" Guerrero raised an eyebrow. "Pierre, you must've said something to _really_ piss him off this time, if he was willing to go _that_ far."

"I didn't say shit! That little bastard is just a psychopath waiting to kill us all." 

"No, he isn't," Michelle heaved another sigh, "You probably mocked his magic again, or compared it to Juukiya's, or insulted his stuffed animals, although I can't imagine _how_ you could have done it this time around; I thought you would've expended your repertoire of insults reserved for teddy bears only." He gave his friend a reprimanding glance. "Maybe you should stop teasing him if you don't want him teasing you."

"I think," Daina raised his hand tentatively, "I think this goes beyond 'teasing', Michelle." Seiya was still laughing like a maniac, and Chabo was holding his stomach as he tried to straighten himself upwards.

Pierre pointed at Daina. "Yes! Yes, exactly. The dude's not a _kid;_ he should be able to handle some verbal punches at the very least. I don't see how saying his teddy bears have creepy eyes that stare into your soul warrants him trying to _murder me with **pottery**._" Michelle only rolled his eyes in response, and Guerrero pinched the bridge of his nose with a sigh, as if he couldn't be bothered anymore.

In Noire's defense, he thought, trying to stifle his glee, it wasn't very fun to be continuously mocked for being magically inferior to the only other magic user who actively was on their team, and it was unequally as annoying to have his precious teddy bears mocked over and over. Pierre wasn't a "hearts and flowers" type of guy, he knew, but if the man wanted to talk about tolerance and respect, then he could stand to have some for his colleague's own hobbies. He couldn't help it if he found comfort in the toys popular amongst small children ー liking cute things was a virtue that could be shared by all age groups ー and it was none of Pierre's business if he couldn't beat Juukiya in terms of magic ー a non-magic user had no room to be talking about such things anyway. 

"Noire," Suddenly, he heard his name be called out, and he nearly tripped over into the hall, exposing himself from his hiding spot. "I know you're hiding, and you're probably laughing at Pierre right now. Come out." Michelle's voice, at odds with his friend, was calm and relaxing. Unlike the icy quiet of Juukiya's voice, his was considerably warmer, and Noire preferred being around him a little more. He had good taste, too; a while ago, back when they had all first met one another properly, he had presented with a flourish a small pink ribbon to tie around the neck of one of his stuffed animals. Pierre had been laughing about it then, but it solidified their position in Noire's head ー Michelle was a decent guy. Pierre was someone he was definitely going to mess with.

He peeked around the corner, making sure to fix his face with one of his most innocent, angelic smiles. "Aww, Michelle, how'd you know I was here?" He skipped over, ignoring Pierre's angry shout and nimbly dodging him as he lunged outwards. To his side, he heard Guerrero hiss in annoyance as the wild-haired man toppled into him, and Michelle gave yet another, much more massive sigh, while Seiya rolled his eyes upwards, arms raised in a theatrical shrug. 

"Because I could hear you stifling your laughter, even with his shouting reverberating all over the place," was the reply, and Michelle lightly nudged his friend with a foot, earning him a fierce glare. "Honestly, Noire, don't you ever get tired starting the mornings like this? We were all working late last night, you included; don't you want to enjoy at least _one_ peaceful morning?" 

"This _is_ my way of enjoying a peaceful morning," sang Noire cheerfully, not letting his childish smile drop an inch, "Disturbing Pierre's!" He cackled and darted behind Daina, whose own hair was a shade of pink lighter and more prominent than his own. His companion sighed, giving the others a bemused stare as he let their childish cohort hide behind his back. He wound up being jerked back and forth as Noire used his body in place of a shield, fending off Pierre until Chabo, shaking his head, separated the trio.

"Cut it out, you guys," Seiya snickered, crossing his arms and bending forward slightly, "You're noisiness is gonna get us all in trouble~" The last part was uttered in a singsong, and immediately everyone clamped their mouths shut. It was one thing to disturb the denizens of the palace with their rowdiness. It was an entirely _different_ thing to disturb its ruler, who could either be asleep or be wide awake, although no one ever knew for sure which, unless they saw him. Many times, when the morning ruckus in the capital became too noisy, at least one of them would go dashing down there, sword in hand, to shut them up. Noire vividly remembered when some idiots had set off a small explosion of some type of imported explosive powder, and Daina and Chabo, faces paler than sheets, had rushed down there, no questions asked, and had come back covered in splatters of blood and soot. "We took care of it," was all Daina had said, face a ghostly white, while Chabo had glowered down at the mess on both of them with distaste. No one had asked about the culprits ー they would likely never bother with such antics again. 

Chabo grimaced, "Come on, you two, can't you both go one day without trying to kill each other?" He shook his head in bemusement, patting Pierre on the back with a thump. "Things are finally getting interesting 'round here, and it's about time you both kissed and made up." He laughed at his own statement, and Seiya sneered slightly, earning them both well-aimed kicks in the shin. 

Noire narrowed his eyes at his cohorts: "What do you mean, 'interesting'?" he asked, dropping his smile. "What happened?"

"You haven't heard?" This came from Seiya, who threw him a vaguely scornful glance. "Man, and I thought _you_ were the one who wanted to be on top of things all the time." He nudged Guerrero with an elbow, and the blonde threw him a look loaded with warning. 

Daina hurriedly stepped in, "It's not just them." He shot Noire a worried glance, pink hair catching the day's light pouring into the silent halls as his head turned. "I didn't hear anything, either."

"That's only natural," Michelle smoothed back his hair, throwing Seiya and Chabo a stern glance, "You were _eavesdropping,_ Seiya, and you went and told Guerrero and Chabo, too. You weren't _supposed_ to hear any of that, not yet." Next to him, Pierre glanced at his friend with a look of concern; as slight as it was, Noire could see it in the crease of his brow. Guerrero sighed and held up his hands in an expression of resignation, likely trying to plead that he had been told this... whatever it was, against his will. 

Seiya's only response was a light shrug, and Chabo responded, "Well, you were gonna tell us sooner or later, Michelle, so we figured it didn't make too much of a difference anyhow." He gave a thin smile, receiving a stern look from Daina in response. "Hey, Daina, we were gonna tell you, too, but Michelle here caught us before we could find you, so..." Hands raised in a semi-apologetic gesture, Chabo offered his friend a slightly warmer smile, to which he received an even sterner look, coupled with a shake of the pink-haired man's head. 

"Idiots..." mumbled Daina, but Noire was no longer paying attention; the prospect of learning something new, of being told something vital, had awakened in him some primal sort of excitement. His constant prodding of Juukiya had borne little fruit ー the answers they had been given at the southwestern border, about the strange spell that had summoned those odd beasts and the presence of the "traitor and her two lackeys" had been the most the team's leader had ever revealed to them. But in the end the conversation had been brought to a halt, before he could ask some of the more pressing questions that had followed up ー _why_ did they need to use the recreation of the contractor's spell? Why had they invaded and attacked Nan Fang specifically? Who were the traitors, and had they known they would be heading for Nan Fang? 

And what exactly was Xifang ー what exactly were _they_ ー trying to do? What was their endgame? 

There had been so many questions, which he had lost the opportunity to find answers for ー Juukiya had stopped talking, likely thinking that they would be satisfied with the answers he had given them there, for the time being. But Noire had been nowhere _near_ satisfied, but then Pierre, the idiot, had gone and run his mouth about the red-haired child in the _jiéshi_ garden at Nan Fang (what had been the deal with that anyhow? He'd thought that they didn't utilize _jiéshi_ too much) and his apparent immunity to the distortion spell he had cast. He felt his fists clench at the memory.

Juukiya probably didn't think he had noticed, but he _had;_ he had noticed that the man had been using him as a buffer ever since they had infiltrated the palace. He had had half a mind to simply cut off all connections to his _jiéshi_ that one night, but partway through he had remembered that some buffers could be forced into using their magic if the receiving mage was strong enough ー stronger than them. That would have been infinitely more painful, so he had used a distortion spell ー they used less energy, and he had thought that perhaps by creating as few threads as possible reaching out from the stone, it would prevent Juukiya from establishing too much of a connection to the _jiéshi_ ー his, in other words ー he was using as a buffer. It hadn't worked; he had felt the stone become more and more jammed as threads that normally should be connected to him reached outward to someone else ー someone who was not their original connector. He had initially thought that was the reason the redheaded brat could see him, but then when the other had made no move to indicate that the spell was no longer working on _him,_ Noire had immediately realized that something was funny. 

However, he hadn't intended on letting his superior find out... not yet. He had tried to stop Pierre from reporting it, but eventually the idiot had given the man the full rundown of the events (he played some of the blame, too, admittedly; the recollection had slipped out of his lips for a brief moment, and he had tried to take it back with banter). And while Juukiya had feigned indifference, Noire had felt a small change in the air surrounding the man, and he knew in that moment that he had been on the verge of grasping something huge, but was still missing all the facts ー facts he was sure their team leader had.

Leading them all into a large room ー a training hall, he realized ー Michelle gathered them all around him in a ring, face gravely serious. Seiya leaned against one of the pillars in the room, near the weapons rack, arms folded, Guerrero and Chabo on either side of him. Daina folded his arms and stood across from them, Noire standing next to him, and Pierre directly beside Michelle. Sighing, the elegantly dressed man handed the _dadao_ blade back to his friend, and Noire realized with a start that, hanging from his belt, he had been also carrying his own sword the whole time: a sharp, finely crafted _jian_ blade, tucked in its sheath. He marveled at the preparedness of the other; no one else here, save for Pierre who had been planning to use his to get back at Noire after he caught him, carried their sword around so early in the morning.

"Alright," Michelle gently ran his fingers over the hilt of his blade, eyes focused on the people in front of him, who were all watching him attentively, like baby sparrows. "I suppose the first thing I should tell you all is that I myself don't completely know all of _his_ plans." He looked them each in the eyes, one by one. "I want you all to understand that." When they each nodded, the three who had already heard all this beforehand included, he continued, "I've been given permission to tell you all this, seeing as I was overheard. It can't be helped." To the side, Seiya flashed Noire a small peace sign, to which he returned it with a subtle eye roll. "I'm sure you all know that we suspect Nan Fang to be guilty of our sudden issues with the magic supply?"

"The _jiéshi?_ " Pierre asked, and Michelle nodded. "Yeah, we know. But they won't admit to anything, much less respond to any of our demands or messages." He grit his teeth. "Man, that really pisses me off." Guerrero gave a silent nod of agreement, and in his heart Noire gave one of his own. 

Michelle glanced around before continuing, "I know you all wish to know why we had to assassinate the king of Nan Fang, correct?" They all nodded. "It's really quite simple: he found out about the contractor's spells, and what they wanted to do with them." He pointed upwards, indicating the only "they" in the castle he could possibly be talking about.

Noire felt his insides churn slightly as he remembered the fearful looks on the two boys he and Pierre had attacked, and he thought of the screams echoing in the castle, and the absolute irony of them all being attacked without the slightest clue what was going on, the attackers included. The only one who had known, he realized, were Juukiya, obviously, and the king himself; he must've realized, as the deformed results of that sad attempt at spell recreation attacked him, and he surely must have been regretting his folly. Or cursing Xifang for affirming his suspicions, whichever came first. He felt his stomach twist, not with horror, but with a strange sort of bubbly feeling of hilarity at the complete lack of emotion or shock any of them was showing at the announcement, unless you discounted Daina's almost comical look of surprise, and the open-mouthed stupidity that was Pierre.

"How?" blurted out Daina, eyes wide, "I thought he wasn't responding to any of our letters. So how did he know, and how did you guys find out he knew?" His fingers were twisted into the sides of his top, the sleeves long and fluttery, like the wings of a butterfly. Noire saw Guerrero shoot his cohort a small look of concern, as if worried that, at any minute, the pink-haired man would tread on a landmine by asking the wrong questions.

"He didn't respond," Michelle's nose crinkled in slight distaste. "Instead, he one-sidedly sent us a letter of his own, after months of ignoring ours. We were just reaching the end of our patience, when we thought we had finally received a response, only to receive a letter that didn't touch upon any of the things we had been trying to discuss. Instead, there was merely a page of writing, telling us, in short, that the king of Nan Fang was aware that we were indulging in 'dangerous research' for the sake of magic and that what we were doing was disobedience of the Four's will." He smirked a little, at that, and Chabo let out a derisive snort. "He's one to talk, with his outright ignorance of the four kingdoms' treaties regarding the agreements on the issues of _jiéshi._ But at any rate, _he_ was furious. Not only were our issues not addressed once, he was almost threatening to make the matter public to Beifang, and to try and dissolve our alliance with Dongfang."

"Hence the assassination?" Noire asked, tilting his head to one side. While it wasn't a decision he was unsurprised with, it was still a little odd that their leader, the head of Xifang, would take such risky action so quickly.

"Not quite," Michelle responded, "First, we wanted to check the validity of his claims, so we investigated. The king had claimed to have evidence of our actions, and, sure enough, he had somehow acquired files on research progress, as well as records on the spells we had been delving into." He rubbed his forehead with a tired expression. "We didn't know _where_ he had gotten such detailed information, and for a while we debated suspending progress for the time being; the spell wasn't working that well, by then, I was told." He frowned. "But then something made him change his mind, because one day Juukiya told me and Julian to monitor the status of Nan Fang, and that he was going to take you all to, and I quote, 'rid us of this nuisance that sits in the throne of another kingdom'." Groaning, the normally composed man threw up his hands. "Before I knew what was happening, you all had departed for the southern kingdom, leaving me with Julian, who knew about as much as I did about what was happening." Pierre sympathetically patted his back, while Seiya muttered, "Looks like he threw you for the loop too, huh?"

"But then why the sudden change?" asked Guerrero; apparently the three hadn't heard this part from Seiya's eavesdropping. "Why did they suddenly decide to kill the king, when they were willing to halt research to see if they could come to an understanding? What happened?"

Noire remembered, vividly, when he and the others had suddenly been told of their next mission. "Assassinate the prince of Nan Fang," they'd been ordered, but that had done a complete one-eighty, and their target had abruptly turned out to be the king and not the prince. Faced with this information, he realized, things made some order of sense; he hadn't known why they needed to assassinate Prince Kanade ー he wasn't the one in charge of political affairs and answering angry letters from neighboring kingdoms, and, now that he thought about it, even if they killed him, likely inciting a war in the process, there wouldn't have been anything to _gain_ from doing it. He marveled at their ー all of them ー natural callousness; while they were all confused as to _why_ they had suddenly needed to kill the king, not a single one of them felt any disgust or guilt having been told it was to silence the man. If anything, Noire thought with a hint of amusement, it was a very Opal-like thing to do ー to do whatever it took to bring one's enemies down, even if it meant they had to kill them to do so. This way of thinking didn't exempt monarchs of distant kingdoms, even if said distant kingdoms had no such creed growing up.

Michelle frowned, eyes staring off in the distance as he traced back through his memories. "I was never really sure myself," he murmured, loud enough for them to hear, but still relatively softly, "Why the sudden change, you ask? I can't say I'm positive, but I remember Juukiya saying there was something there that they needed, and that the king had caught onto it, hence putting everything in danger."

Guerrero closed his eyes, hand balled up into a fist, his face leaning towards it in an expression of intense contemplation. "Say everything you just said again," he said, slowly, "But in a way that makes sense." Seiya let out a soft huff of laughter, but his expression, too, was complicated. Chabo didn't say anything, only frowned deeply, and next to Noire, Daina tilted his head in confusion. He didn't have to even look at Pierre ー just as he had expected, the man was giving Michelle the most uncomprehending stare ever to exist. 

"I think," Noire piped up, leaning over Daina's shoulder languidly, much to the other pink-haired man's chagrin, "What Michelle means to say is that Nan Fang had something vital to our plans, something neither of us realized. So around the same time they found out, the king of Nan Fang must have figured it out, too, hence, the sudden shift in danger levels." He smiled brightly at Michelle, but even he could tell his cheerfulness was beginning to border on manic. "Is that what you meant?"

"That is, in essence, the gist of it," was the reply, "Juukiya was saying that Nan Fang had their hands on something we, Xifang, needed, but it wasn't even in the palace, or their capital, apparently, or the king would've used an even stronger threat against us, and this assassination never would've worked. So both of us were scrambling to find it, but because the king was, well, obviously closer, it became apparent that not only was he a liability in our goal, he had the potential to break apart everything they've ー we've ー worked for." He glanced down at his sword, gently running a hand down the sheath, eyes wandering. If Noire was guessing correctly (and he probably was), his thoughts were likely on the person who had given him the sword, years ago.

"Hey," Pierre's voice abruptly cut through the room, but it was aimed directly at Michelle, whose head shot up in response. "So, what _was_ the thing they needed?"

"They didn't tell me," Noire didn't miss the slight clench of the man's hand, the one that was still grasping the sheath, and he nervously wondered if their superior was planning to whip the sword out at any moment; his stance certainly seemed to suggest as such. "But they did call it a 'key' for the 'ritual', so I'm assuming it has to do with the magical spell they're trying to pull off..."

"The fake contractor's spell...?" came the inquiry from Daina, in a low voice. Guerrero was still standing in his earlier position, lost in thought, while Seiya had slid to the floor, back leaning against the pillar, eyes half open and staring blankly into space. Chabo was scratching the back of his head, expression complicated, and Pierre was still shooting his friend looks of concern, which were answered with glances from the other that seemed to be trying to indicate that he was alright. Noire carefully picked apart the information he had just been told, fitting into what he already knew. The mystery of the king's death had been solved ー he didn't want to be the one to tell the prince of Nan Fang, that was for sure, he thought with a fake shudder ー and for the time being he had a vague outline of what they were trying to aim for. But only an outline. And that wasn't enough.

_A key, huh?_ he thought, trying to remember everything they had done in Nan Fang ー there had been quite a lot. "Hey, Michelle, when Juukiya took us, did he mention we were going to search for this 'key' too? Or did he leave that part out?" _Like he does everything else,_ he opted not to add, trying to keep his wit in check.

"Wellー" Before Michelle could finish that sentence, however, the doors suddenly opened with a dramatic flourish, startling everyone. Seiya toppled over from his half-sitting position, while Chabo nearly leapt a good three metres in the air; Daina yelped and grabbed Noire without thinking, although he had no room to judge ー he had whirled around in a panic, nearly sending the other flying to the side; Guerrero had lunged out for one of the training weapons in the rack; Pierre had his hand on the hilt of his _dadao,_ and Michelle looked set to pull his _jian_ out of his sheath. The sudden interloper ー Julian, their resident seer ー who had burst in with his usual dramatic flair, paused in confusion, staring at the group all bristling and startled like a group of cats. In the corner of his eye, Noire saw the only two armed members of their group hurriedly take their hands off their weapons, trying to calm their breathing before their panic prompted them to dice their own ally to bits.

"Whatever is the matter with you all?" Julian blinked, gaze travelling over each of them in turn. "Seiya, why are you lying on the floor?"

The man in question rolled over, mumbling something like "I wasn't lying on the damn floor," but embarrassment from his folly prevented him from raising his voice any further. Likewise, everyone else was suddenly feeling embarrassed at their reactions; they hadn't realized how frayed their nerves were, to the point that people entering the rooms of the _very_ _palace they lived in_ was enough to startle them.

"Julian" sighed Guerrero, holding a hand to his chest, "By Baihu you startled us." The man in question only looked confused at the statement; hardly a surprise, Noire thought, considering that the man didn't know what they had been talking about ー in his eyes, they had merely been in one of the many training rooms in the castle, and he had found them. 

"Whatever, that's beside the point," Noire shot a childish, innocent smile at Julian. "Did you need us for something, Julian?" Behind him, he heard Pierre wretch ー he couldn't appreciate getting into character as much as Noire did ー and Michelle gave his friend a light smack over the head. 

Julian blinked, before clapping his hands together, "Oh! Yes, that's right." He glanced around the room. "Good, you're all here. I thought I would have to go search the entire palace for you all." He smiled back at Noire, and his normally imposing, authoritative features softened a little, rounded out by his smile. "Sir Juukiya called a meeting," he said waving a hand at them all, a gesture for them to follow him. "Normally I would think such a thing should be held at night, but alas! He said it would be best to hold it now. It seems the ruffians in the capital below have ceased with their foolishness, for now, at least."

"Meeting?" Daina glanced at all of them, before walking up to Julian, who was already opening the door and gesturing for them to follow him out of the room. "Julian, what meeting? What's it about?"

"Sir Dory wants to discuss our next moves in person. He wants to begin operations to retrieve the key from Nan Fang, as soon as possible." 

"The key?" Noire leaned in. "He's going to tell us what the key is? And why we need it?"

"Hold up, _Dory_ is gonna be at this meeting?!" Pierre interjected. 

"Why, he's the one hosting it, of course," beamed Julian. "And that's not all; because he wants this operation to go as swimmingly as possible, he's decided to take a bit of a _different_ course of action."

"Different?" Guerrero's brow scrunched.

"The next operation to Nan Fang," smiled Julian, "It seems that, to retrieve the key, Sir Dory would very much prefer to go and find it in person, himself."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> From the earlier chapters with these guys:  
> Juukiya ー chokuto blade and jiéshi  
> Noire ー jiéshi  
> Pierre ー dadao blade  
> Seiya ー dao blade  
> Chabo ー dao blade  
> Guerrero ー dao blade (the one Takato injured)  
> Daina ー scimitar
> 
> Their. Names. Were HARD to write over and over, and on top of that I had to do a lot of searching because host names are all so odd.  
> But here you go; our lovely cast of Xifang has finally been named. If you didn't watch Kizoku Korin or Tanjou, then just look up the official site; they should be there.  
> My characterizations could be labeled as OOC, but if you think about it these guys don't show up much, and I don't play the game because my storage is full of rip-roaring adventurer gatcha games (giggles), so, well, take it all with a grain of salt. They all act this way because I took a good, long look at their profiles, the drama (I can't watch the movie again until the DVD comes out), and so forth, trying to piece them together. Considering they yell out host calls in unison and go barging in on people's homes in fancy suits, I feel justified in saying they are all probably very, terribly dramatic. And chaotic. Those outfits scream "chaotic energy" to me.
> 
> Anyways (tips a glass host style) here's to another chapter.


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One pattern I have fun doing is stupidly long build up for both plot and romance, as you can see. Then I put it in one chapter and see where it takes me.
> 
> This was almost, ALMOST 10K words (9.8K, meaning I was just 200 words short). But I needed to wrap it up, and endlessly dragging it out might make me write even more than I intended to, meaning the next chapter upload would either be very short or wouldn't come in a long while. 
> 
> But, anyways, here's another chapter.

_Do you know about the Four?_

_'The Four?'_

_The four great mythic beasts. They're these super powerful creatures, with the power of gods. They all controlled this whole continent, created the land and life on it, long before humans even existed._

_'So... they're like the parents of this continent, then?'_

_.... Huh, you're right. Yeah, they're like the parents of this continent, I guess._

_'.... What else?'_

_Huh...? Oh, right... So the Four all used to roam directly on the continent, and when humans came to be they were content on mingling with them, granting them aid for their good deeds and punishing them for their bad. And they were crazy strong, but sometimes fought and argued, so occasionally they would ally themselves with humans when fighting one another._

_'......'_

_Hey... did you just laugh...?_

_'I thought it was kind of funny... they're sorta like... siblings? They sound just like the siblings you describe to me.'_

_.... Oh._

_............_

_'?'_

_Well, anyway, at one point the humans split off into the four main directions of the continent: north, south, east, and west. And they each started to establish kingdoms there... y'know, the four places I described to you last time._

_'The places you said were beautiful places to go?'_

_.... I said I would take you, didn't I?_

_'.... Yeah, you did.'_

_..................._

_'So, what about the kingdoms...?'_

_Oh, yeah, umm... so the four kingdoms were created after all the humans on the continent sorta... split, I guess, into these four groups. And they each started the four kingdoms. But at first there was all sorts of conflicts and wars and people kept trying to hurt each other, and the four founders couldn't reach a compromise, so one day they came here._

_'Here?'_

_This place... everyone says it's weird and enchanted... I've never explored the whole forest so I have no clue. I can only come here, where you are... everything beyond that is... dangerous._

_'..............'_

_But the four founders at the time gathered here, and they beseeched the Four to help them come to an agreement, and the Four decided that, to keep the peace, the people of the kingdoms needed a powerful monarchy they could trust, and a deity to lay their wishes on. So the Four agreed to come into contract and aid the kingdoms, but_ only _if they first proved themselves capable of surviving these first conflicts, and showed they were worthy of prosperity. It took some time, but somehow, despite all the fighting, the four kingdoms, one by one, managed to overcome their conflicts and reach a more peaceful age, proving they were worthy of coexistence with the beasts and their magic. Eventually, all four of the promised contracts had been created, and for several hundreds of years, the royal families passed the power of the contract down._

_'Even today?'_

_..... No. The beasts, 500 years ago.... They vanished. No one knew why._

_'......Huh.'_

_......_

_'..... Maybe they... got tired?'_

_What do you mean?_

_'Maybe they got tired of being tied down to humans for so long, and wanted to live freely, without anyone but themselves using their power. Maybe they just... wanted a break?'_

_I don't get it. They were worshiped as gods; what more could they have possibly wanted for?_

_'.... Maybe they got tired of that too.'_

_Hm? Did you say something?_

_'.... No....'_

_Anyway, it's all a big mystery. But it's funny, really...._

_'?'_

_I just... never thought of the story as more than a myth, or a musty old piece of history I'd have to hear over and over from my teachers. I was in one of those very four kingdoms all my life, sure, but it never... sank in, for me. That's why..._

_'That's why...?'_

_This place, where the founders all met ー this **convergence point**... I never thought I'd be standing here, and I never thought I would've met you, either._

* * *

When Kanon had told them to "come meet her in the library", Ryu had thought she had done so with the intention of having an important discussion, or perhaps ー although it felt highly unlikely ー to ask them for help. By _them,_ she had referred to him and his brother, but half out of instinct and half out of spite, he had brought Koki, Riku, and Kaiji along. If it turned out to be something _really_ serious, he figured he could get them out of hearing range some way or the other.

What he had _not_ expected to find upon opening the archive doors was the sight of Kanon furiously chewing out the three men who had met with the mayor two weeks ago ー the bard Haru, and his two companions. Behind them stood a fourth man; his was a new face, which Ryu had perhaps seen in passing every once in a while, but had never properly talked to. He was watching the three get scolded with an exasperated expression, arms held up in a shrug as he shook his head. With every furious word from Kanon, Haru's two companions shot each other rueful glances, and Haru's face twitched in a nervous smile. He felt a twinge of sympathy for them ー whatever they had done to annoy her (which wasn't too hard), they were likely not going to hear the end of it anytime soon. Behind him he could feel Takato's confusion, as palpable as day, and he saw Kaiji and Riku both peer over from behind Koki; a considerably hard feat, considering he was shorter than both of them, he thought with some amusement. Kanon was too busy chewing out the three men to notice, but the fourth had glanced up at the sound of footsteps approaching, and he waved a hand gently at the girl to catch her attention.

She whirled around, and Ryu remembered Takato saying he had been worried that she wasn't "being herself lately", that the stress was eating at her. She seemed perfectly fine to him; if she had the energy to chew out three grown men for only-the-gods-know how long, then she probably wasn't as down and wilted as his older brother feared. Which was a good thing, he thought, peering at the older men, until it wasn't; being her normal self would be a cause for celebration, but at the same time it meant you could risk setting off an explosion at any given moment with just one wrong move. 

"So," Takato blinked, pointing at the three adults, who all looked properly cowed. One of them had his arms wrapped around an old book, falling apart with age. "What did, err, Haru and his buddies do to set you off this time, Kanon?"

Ryu noted Koki glowering slightly at the three in the corner of his eye, and winced as he remembered that it was technically their fault that Kaiji and Riku had been, in a way, roped into the mess. While the redhead likely hadn't intended to keep his friends in the dark for too long, he probably would've preferred if he could have explained things to them; at the very least, he probably didn't appreciate the three travelers ー all grown men with weapons, at that ー sneaking up on his friends and scaring the life out of them. It wasn't the best first impression to get out of anyone.

Kanon threw back her hair with a huff, voice tinged with annoyance, "Nothing _too_ awful, lucky for them." She shot the men behind her an evil stare. "Except they stole off with one of the books I had been _meaning_ to research, yesterday, and had they not done so then perhaps this search for answers would've gone a _little_ differently." Shaking her head, he slammed a hand down on the desk, making Riku jump. Ryu saw Kaiji's hand clench tighter into Koki's shoulder, and the redhead tried to brush him off, to no avail.

"Oh," Takato winced, shooting the men behind her a sympathetic, albeit stern, look. "Yeah, that's not really smart guys; Kanon goes _ballistic_ trying to organize her research and stuff, so if we're not carefully she researches _everything._ If there was something that might've served to make her search a little easier and you guys took it..." He held out his arms in a "what can you do" gesture. "Well, just think how lucky you are that we're in the palace of Nan Fang, where using magic to attack others would be considered _really_ rude."

"We'll keep that in mind," responded one of Haru's companions ー Sho, he remembered, "Apologies, little lady." Ryu wondered if he was about to witness a homicide in this archive; Takato had grabbed Kanon's arm before she could potentially pick up one of the heavy tomes sitting on the table and lob it at the man's head. The other member of the trio, Taichi, promptly smacked his friend, lightly, and Ryu heard him mutter, "Don't call her 'little lady'; small people are self-conscious.", making him question both of their sanities.

He was beginning to think that this trio wasn't the brightest, or had the best survival instincts. Or maybe they just enjoyed messing with anyone ー small, angry female mages with the potential to break clean holes in the walls with one spell included. He mused, offhandedly, if it would be detrimental to their work to stop Xifang if they wound up accidentally killing these allies through infighting; Kanade, he imagined, would be distraught by it. He wasn't really sure what the others' opinions on this trio were anyway; while Kanade had openly welcomed the prospect of more allies, everyone else had been slightly put off by their theatrics. While Aoi had begrudgingly admitted that he didn't think they were lying about wanting to offer their aid to protect the four kingdoms, sometimes Ryu caught him rolling his eyes to the heavens at their flair for drama, and he was beginning to think the young mayor was considering rescinding his earlier statement.

"Never mind that," Ryu tilted his top half slightly, peering past his brother and Kanon ー the former was still keeping a firm grip on the latter's wrist to prevent any book throwing from occurring. "Who's that?" His eyes were on the tall, rather formally dressed older man. He was a rather handsome man, slightly older than them all (around Haru and co.'s age, if he was guessing correctly) and had hair was set neatly, and if Ryu remembered correctly, he had seen this man come out of the archive many times over the course of the past week. He'd sometimes seen him walking around with a book or two in hand as well; the only reason he had even had a vague recollection of the man was because, once, he had seen him walking down the halls, gazing intently into a hand mirror and somehow nimbly avoiding any crashes into the walls, or other people. 

"Him?" Kanon glanced behind her, and Takato slowly released her wrist, likely deducing that she had calmed down, for now. She brushed her hair back and gave the man a nod of indication, continuing, "This is Yuki Riichi, a scholar, and Kanade's tutor. Seiichiro brought him to me a few days ago, saying his help would be tremendously useful."

The man responded with a polite nod of his own. "Pleasure to meet you all," His voice was smooth, and Ryu guessed that he was probably the "gentlemen" type, the kind of man that was immensely popular. There was a refined and elegant air in the way he held himself, and an aura of confidence. The robes, Ryu realized, were definitely those of a scholar; Beifang's own scholars wore outfits of a similar make. "I was just about to recommend some readings I had found to Ms. Kanon, when _these three,_ " He gazed sternly at the only other three proper adults (discounting Takato, who did and didn't count, for a variety of reasons) in the room, hands crossed in a very scholarly and scolding manner. "Barged in, saying they had something for her. And they very proudly produced one of the books she had been searching through ー or had been planning to, had you lot not gone and stole away with it." The last words were directed towards Haru and his friends, and the leader of the little trio scratched his head sheepishly.

"Aww, c'mon, Riichi, don't be like that!" Ryu blinked in surprise at the open friendliness in the man's voice; he hadn't heard him use such an honest-sounding tone towards anyone but the two he always hung around. "'Sides, it was Sho who took the book, not me. Get mad at him!" 

"Thanks a lot." muttered Sho, but he didn't sound particularly miffed.

"I don't care," was the cool response, "But it held an important bit of information, and the fact that you hindered work that _I_ am caught up in makes this very hard to tolerate, Haru. As a matter of fact, such a thing is highly unforgivable." He tossed his head back, tone self important and a little stuffy, and for a split second Ryu heard Riku whispering the words they had all just heard softly, to the point he was basically mouthing them, and Kaiji snorting as he realized their implication. 

"So," he heard Koki whisper, "If he hadn't been involved in this he would've been OK with it...?" 

"Who knows." Kanon shrugged, whispering back. "I've only worked with him for four days and I've found out two things about this man: one, he's extremely intelligent, and is most definitely the tutor for royalty. And two, he might be the most narcissistic man I've ever met, except he has no ill will while doing it, so I honestly don't know what to make of it." She wrinkled her nose a bit, expression perplexed, as she stared at the two men banter, leaving the younger audience immensely confused, and rather sort of lost. 

"Um, hey," Takato piped up, raising a hand timidly as if he were in a room full of young students, and he was one of their number. "Er, so, Mr. Yuki?"

"You can call me by my first name, so long as you use a proper honorific," was the reply, and the utter seriousness in the tone made all of them falter. "After all, to address me using my first name is an honor, but unless you are an uncouth buffoon like this one," He waved a hand airily at Haru, who made a wounded noise of affront. "Then you would be wise to use the proper honorific that suits it." 

Kanon glanced at all of them, her face resigned, as if the man's nature was too far beyond her understanding for her to even try and comprehend, as she mouthed 'see?' at the five ー Ryu was sure he was wearing a strange expression of puzzlement, and he saw Takato staring with confused, wide eyes, like he was trying to understand what that extremely lengthy answer to a question he hadn't even had the opportunity to ask had been. Behind him, he heard Koki mutter "well, okay then..." while Kaiji and Riku were likely both blinking in confusion. In front of them, Taichi shot them all sympathetic looks, while Sho grinned ruefully. Haru, on the other hand, looked like he was having the time of his life.

"O....okay, so... Mr. Riichi, then," Even Takato, who was normally an all-inclusive, friendly guy who took easily to all sorts of people, seemed a little lost, but Ryu could hear a hint of amusement in his voice, and he knew sooner or later his brother would be making friends with this guy, too. "What was that 'important bit of information' you all were just discussing?" 

"Ah," came the response, "That's right; that's why Ms. Kanon and I called for you." He clapped his hands together, the sound crisp, and Ryu once again was struck with a sort of reaffirmation that this was _definitely_ a royal tutor. He could almost imagine him giving Kanade, and whoever else he taught, lessons. Behind him he heard Kaiji mutter, "Yep, he's a teacher alright." and Koki jokingly retorted, "Not a single one of the teachers that we've ever met were anything like him, though." making Ryu wonder what education was like in Nan Fang ー in Beifang, he had gone to a small schoolhouse, where every child of almost every age until 16 had been schooled, all under the same roof. That was how small a town they had lived in, meaning no matter what, unless one of them proved themselves to be a potential scholar of exceptional intellect, everyone was pretty much taught the same things, at similar paces. It naturally differed between certain age groups, but it wasn't too divided that he hadn't often seen his older brother in classes ー he had, an awful lot, to the point Takato joked that it was either he was too dumb to move forward, or Ryu was too smart and kept catching up. His younger siblings always had a good laugh at that.

Riichi (that was what he decided to refer to him as, honorifics be damned unless he was addressing the man directly) had suddenly snatched the book out of Haru's hands, and was slowly waving it up and down, making him wonder if his wrist would be OK after this. From what he was seeing of the thing, it was rather weighty-looking, and the casualty with which he handled it made him worry that it would fall apart any second now. 

"In this," was the dramatic proclamation, "There lies a tale that hints to us what our foes in Xifang may be plotting, and where we may find answers." 

Koki, who had come up closer to stand next to Ryu, shot him a glance and mouthed, "What?" slowly, confusion apparent on his face. Ryu tried to stifle a laugh desperately ー recently, he found himself smiling with the redhead's antics and every move more often than he could count, although he wasn't really sure why. 

Kanon sighed; she had likely deduced that leaving the explanations to Riichi would result in more confusion for the five than not. "Alright," she huffed a breath, index finger curling through a lock of her hair, "So we found out that..."

* * *

_A few hours ago_

_"So," Kanon tapped her foot, "This better be good for you three to come barging in here so abruptly." She glowered up at Haru and his companions, who had all very brightly barged into the archive, startling her and upsetting several papers she had been using to jot down notes in the process. Their cheer had been so out of place ー considering that just the other day a **funeral** had occurred on these very grounds ー and she had half a mind to cut them down with as many sarcastic and caustic comments as she could come up with. Riichi, who had been helping her since morning, seeing as Aoi and Gabriel had been discussing something with Gen and Seiichiro, had only shot the three of them a distasteful glance before turning back to the book he was currently flicking through. This only prompted Haru to pad up to him and wrap an arm around the man, in the manner of a sunbathing cat. Kanon didn't miss the look of amusement Sho and Taichi shot one another, and she gave them an inquisitive glance of her own._

_Taichi, who noticed it first, smirked a little, before explaining, "We're actually pretty old acquaintances of Riichi, you see. Very good friends, some can say."_

_"Not a single person, myself included," snapped the tutor, throwing off Haru's arm and scowling, "Has ever referred to the four of us as 'good friends'; if anything, you three are lucky that I let you stay in Nan Fang as long as you did the last time. You nearly blew up some poor old man's pawnshop because you thought antics with the_ jiéshi _in a closed space were a good idea." Haru guffawed at that, and Sho and Taichi both collectively chuckled._

 _"Alright," Kanon sighed, "I don't want to know or hear about whatever..._ that _entails, because I have much more **important** matters on my mind at the moment. So," She glowered straight at Haru, who shot her a lazy smile, "Why. Are. You three. IN HERE." She slowly began to increase the pressure in her words, and in front of her she saw Haru wince slightly; a magic user was most sensitive to others' changes in aura, particularly that of other magic users. She had mastered the art of silently cowing others, despite her (admittedly) delicate frame and diminutive size. _

_However, the cat-like man immediately regained his earlier, languid composition, even going so far as to throw her a cheeky little smile. She only raised an inquiring eyebrow at him, not in the mood for any games or such nonsense. Her notes were still scattered sadly about, and she felt a rush of panic at imagining what would happen if even a single one somehow went missing in all this mess._

_"Well," Sho rubbed his neck awkwardly, and she turned her gaze slowly on him. "We have an interesting bit of information to tell, if you're interested." He accentuated the last part of his statement with a small, sly smile, making Kanon wonder what these men hoped to gain from acting so enigmatic and mysterious all the time. Not that she was one to judge, but at least she didn't go around giving_ her _own two companions meaningful looks loaded with room for suspicion from others, in full view of a bunch of other people._

 _"Of course I'm interested," she snapped, tired, "This isn't the time for being mysterious or acting the part of helpful, enigmatic informant, like the ones in those novels you both read and write. You either_ tell _me the information ー anything you've learned or seen or heard ー or you don't bother me, and let me do my work. In **peace**." She stuck a finger up, pointing directly towards Haru's face, mustering her sternest glare, and piling on the pressure of her aura, to the point she could tell every man in the room was feeling a little bowled over by it. Even Riichi, who had simply been nodding with a hint of self-importance along with Kanon's words, backed up just the slightest bit, barely a fraction of a centimetre. _

_After a silence that lasted maybe a fraction of a second, Taichi sighed and smacked Sho's shoulder lightly. "Just tell her, already," he sighed, "It's more important than any of us probably realize; as a matter of fact, I'll just say it." He turned back to Kanon. "So, miss, remember what we first told you, when we arrived in the palace?"_

_"When you scared the souls out of those two poor boys?" she asked, raising an eyebrow, "Yes, I do."_

_He didn't even flinch at the statement; "We said that we had overheard Xifang's goons mentioning that they were trying a 'trial run' with an old, forbidden spell that was intended to mimic the contractor's spell used by the royal families, correct? And that the result was those deformed beasts you saw that night." He waved a hand towards a book that, up until now, she hadn't noticed Sho had been holding. "See, this book here was full of all manners of tales ー the works of many authors past, of events both mimicking reality or creating a false one._

_"Among those tales, there was one that caught our interest ー a story about a group, or a family, of researchers, all who aimed to create a new, powerful type of spell, one that surely would herald the beasts' ire, as seen is many other similar tales of its make. In the end, the spell results in a failure, and it wreaks havoc for the four kingdoms, causing chaos and disorder, until the monarchs used their contracts with the Four to quell the disaster. The family is severely punished ー although the contents of said punishment are unclear ー and the kingdom returns to its normal state of 'kowtowing to the Four aimlessly, with no thoughts of evolution or future', in the author's scathing words." He smiled a little, but there was a twist to it, like he had bitten into something bitter. "Unlike almost every other writer of folklore, this particular author recounted this tale with his own creative little touch, making it seem less like a 'happy ending' and more so a bad one, where the_ family, _who he judged to be in the right, was unjustly punished and suffered in two ways: not only did they come under the ire of the Four, their attempts at creating a new path into the future were 'blocked by the pitiful single-mindedness and unwillingness to change of the old generation.' Harsh words, although I can't discount them entirely. There was also the rumor we heard in Dongfang," His face twisted into a frown this time, as he spoke. "When we tailed the groups travelling to the mines, we overheard the Xifang officials stationed there speaking of some sort of 'ritual', as we told you all ー except you, Riichi ー that involved copious amounts of magic, hence their excursions to the mines and research, if that reasoning is to be believed._ This _tale, well, it may have a connection to it all."_

 _Riichi tilted his head. "It is a rather fascinating take on such a common theme," he mused, "But what of it? Are you perhaps suggesting that this holds some connection to the things you heard those men from Xifang talking about?" His voice was a little pompous, his words slightly overbearing, but Kanon had wanted to ask the exact same thing ー as intriguing as it all sounded, there didn't seem to be any factor in the tale just now that directly connected it to their problems with Xifang or the_ jiéshi. 

_"It gets complicated, old friend," was Haru's grave reply, "See, we thought the same thing, because the main **problem** with this story was..." He snatched the book from Sho, flipping through the pages. "The portions that would've solidified if this 'research' had anything to do with the 'ritual' Xifang wishes to attempt were completely wiped out." Kanon came over and peered curiously down at the page he was indicating; there were portions ー whole paragraphs ー that had been smeared out with some black substance, like burn marks. But the burns didn't cut through the paper, and she marveled at the pages' toughness, while also marveling in a completely different manner about who would do such a horrible thing to such a valuable tome of old text._

_Bringing his own face closer, Kanon heard Riichi make a small, troubled noise, frowning at the complete desecration of the pages. "This is highly unacceptable," he said, in the most aggressive manner she had heard of him, ever. "This tome is centuries old and belongs to the Crimson Kingdom's royal archive; I will not stand for this!" he suddenly shouted, making Taichi nearly lose his balance. "I will see to it that the perpetrator is punished severely!" The dramatic statement was coupled with the man throwing out his arms, promptly smacking Sho upside the head with the book he had been carrying._

_"Unless they're not **dead** yet..." muttered Taichi, and Kanon gave a mental nod of agreement; who knew how long ago these scars had been made. For all they knew, their perpetrator could be an elderly person of nearly 100 years, or a relatively youthful being, or a rotting corpse who had died several years ago. As a matter of fact, she thought, they might very well be just a stack of bleached bones at this point, weathering away with time._

_Haru made a face of fond exasperation, "Sure, Riichi, but first," He patted the man on the back, "Put the book down before you accidentally take someone out."_

_"Anyway," sighed Taichi, "The point is, this story had portions of it blocked it ー whether it was recent or a while ago, I cannot say for sure. But there are other tales of its make," He flipped through the book again, stopping now and then to indicate certain titles placed here and there, "That follow a similar format. And if you give it some thought, the tale we heard those men from Xifang talking about was an unfamiliar one ー there are no known records or even the slightest of rumors about a 'contractor's spell'. And there are stories in here, all of which at least one of us has heard in the course of our lives, but when we recounted the tale to you all, not a single person knew of it, not in the slightest."_

_"Doesn't that strike you as odd?" piped up Sho, "That, among all the tales of the beasts punishing those who reach for powers above them,_ that _tale is completely unheard of? And that, coincidentally, one tale in this book of very similar ones just happened to be blotted out, preventing us from seeing its contents?"_

_Kanon frowned, and she stuck her own hand out to flip back to the offending pages. "It does sound odd when you put it that way." she conceded, "And you all may very well be right. But how does this add to anything you've already told us?"_

_"To start off," Taichi waved a hand down at the book, "It confirms that there is somebody out there who wants to interfere with our progress looking into... whatever this entails."_

_"Interfere?" Riichi raised an eyebrow._

_"Interfere," Haru nodded, "Think about it; a lot of vital clues you all have been searching for have been mysteriously missing, haven't they? The letters Xifang supposedly sent the king, for one."_

_"Now that I think about it," Kanon scrunched her brow, "Riichi-san, did we ever find out_ why _Xifang even knew that Nan Fang's_ jiéshi _supply wasn't diminishing? That sort of thing would be hard to find out, especially here, where the levels are so low in the first place." Riichi shook his head, and Haru snapped his fingers, pointing dramatically at the other man._

 _"There you go!" he exclaimed, "You don't even have a proper hint as to why Xifang is targeting this kingdom in the first place; they very well could have asked Nan Fang for help with their_ jiéshi _problem than Dongfang, who wasn't making any progress, and they might have gone after Beifang, had they not known that kingdom ー secretive as it is ー were suffering from the same problem. And now this," He gestured at the book. "What may have been a vital clue was wiped out by some malicious means."_

_"They missed an interesting portion of the story, though," Sho smirked, "Actually, it may prove to be more helpful than we realized."_

_"And that would be?"_

_Haru gave another one of his enigmatic grins. "So," he asked, turning his head conspiratorially between Kanon and Riichi, "Have you both ever heard of the convergence point?"_

* * *

"The convergence point?"

The sudden exclamation came from Koki, who had, throughout Kanon's recounting, been silent, every once or so often glancing at the other boys in turn, expression usually perplexed. They had all been listening with a tentative ear, but this one phrase had captured all their attention ー Takato's and Ryu's for a more specific reason. Kaiji and Riku were silently glancing at each other in confusion, each checking to see if the other knew the term and would explain to them what it meant. Koki's expression was complicated, but he, too, had his head tilted at a slightly confused angle, his tone questioning as it voiced the unfamiliar term.

"It's a place," Kanon said slowly, as if she were trying to pull out whatever she knew of it from the depths of her memory, "At the center of the continent. There's many rumors swirling around it: that is was the place where the founders of the kingdoms first met the mythic beasts; that it's enchanted; that it lures people into its depths and never lets them leave; that the beasts vanished there when they suddenly stopped appearing in front of humans. No one can get close to the place ー it has an aura that scares off even the strongest of warriors or the most talented of mages, and what's worse, it can apparently do... strange things, for lack of better phrase, to a person's mind."

Ryu saw Kaiji twitch at that last part, and Riku asked hesitantly, "... What do you mean by 'strange things'?"

"It messes with people's heads, depending on how long they've gone near the place," Takato responded, and Kanon nodded in agreement, "It's never specific _what_ it'll do to your head: make your vision go funny so your head doesn't see things the way they are, or make you see hallucinations and stuff. About the only thing anyone's sure about is that the longer you stay there, the worse the 'messing up' gets." He made air quotes at his last words, and rapped his head lightly with a fist. "When I was a kid, there was this kinda funny old man living in our town who had gone there when he was younger, and everyone was saying he was crazy 'cos he had stayed there too long. He would hallucinate of wild beasts that shouldn't exist at times, and there were moments when someone had to go check on him at night, when his dreams got really bad."

Ryu could only vaguely remember the man Takato had described; all he remembered of him was the shouts in the middle of the night as his family tried to calm him down during a particularly bad fit, and the gentle soothing gestures their mother made as they watched their father step outside, checking if their neighbors needed assistance. 

The convergence point being a dangerous place was common knowledge for all the children in Beifang, but never had he been able to attribute the old man's slight oddness to a magical enchanted place that no one was allowed to approach. For starters, it was off limits; going into that forest was the equivalent of breaking a taboo instilled by the beasts themselves, and could be punished if discovered. Ryu had not once wished to see the place ー disregarding the horror stories, the prospect of treading into a place so far removed from his knowledge of reality was too terrifying for him to consider, especially when he was still just a small child. Takato sometimes joked about becoming an explorer and delving into its depths, but after they had both been taught the real and proper consequences of attempting to do so ー while also growing older and more mature to understand its weight ー his older brother stopped saying such things.

"The way he was screaming," Ryu grimaced, "They were more like nightmares. But, yeah, everyone said it was mostly because of old age, but his son was talking to our father once, and he said that his father had ventured to the convergence point back when the son was still a little kid, and he came back and couldn't remember his own children."

He didn't miss Kaiji and Riku both giving each other meaningful glances. Nor did he miss the worried look Takato shot him. He pretended not to notice either one.

"Crazy stuff," Takato shook his head, "While no on was allowed to go _inside_ the forest directly, there were still people who could travel to the outskirts of it. But then Beifang started declaring going near that place off limits recently ー some official went down there and came back all battered, and they worried that someone or _something_ was living there that could pose a threat to anyone who approached. The official died only a year after; they say until then, he was constantly babbling weird things that didn't make sense."

"So this... family," Koki frowned, "They _lived_ there? Wouldn't that be super dangerous for them?" 

"Well, logically, yes," Kanon conceded, "But if you think about it, the founders were able to approach the convergence point to meet the beasts ー that is, if the stories are true." She brushed a lock of hair back, and walked around the desk to the other side, where her chair had been pushed to the side, away from the table; it made Ryu wonder, offhandedly, if she had jumped out of her seat earlier, causing its displacement. "The theory is that the disappearance of the Four likely pushed the place into disarray, making it inaccessible to humans once they were no longer connected to the mythical beings. Since our magic doesn't exactly radiate 'divinity' like their's likely did, perhaps the convergence point no longer accepts humans coming anywhere near it ー assuming this theory is correct, of course."

"And that's why you called us?" asked Takato, "'Cos you wanted to tell us about this?" He gave her a light smile, likely trying to ease the tension building in the room ー primarily, between the three of them: Ryu, Takato, and Kanon. "Couldn't you have told us all this when the whole crew was here? I'm sure Kanade and Aoi and everyone else would want to hear this too."

Fixing her gaze steadily on him, Kanon said softly, "You know full well why I told you both first." Her gaze went to Ryu, who only stared back at her, praying his gaze was as calm as hers. "If this has something to do with the convergence point, then you _know_ what kind of trouble this entails."

"Trouble?" Koki blinked, pulling gently on Ryu's sleeve, and he turned to look at the other boy. The redhead's eyes were full of concern, and they were directed right at _him,_ making him falter. "What does she mean, trouble? Is the convergence point really that bad?"

"It's not just _bad_ ," came Haru's sardonic point, "It's the one place on the whole continent where none of the four kingdoms are allowed to tread or claim. It also happens to be the holy resting ground for the Four, whether the rumors about them being there after they vanished or true or not. Our _jiéshi_ also happens to be virtually ineffective in such a place, seeing as the magical energy it radiates practically overpowers our own."

"And," sighed Ryu, "If the source of our problem, or our answers, lies there, and that means we'd have to venture into the convergence point, in effect breaking an old traditional agreement from Qinglong knows how long ago, then..."

"We would be welcoming the wrath of the kingdoms," Kanon continued calmly, at odds with her dark expression, "In other words, all of us, backgrounds and motives aside, would be inciting a war."

* * *

"A war, huh?" Koki murmured, and Ryu glanced at him out of the corner of his eyes. "That... honestly I have a hard time believing it. A war? Really?"

After Kanon's impromptu meeting had been called to a close, everyone gathered in the archive had scattered to their respective destinations; Haru and his companions had meandered off, likely to find another nook in the palace to settle themselves into, perhaps to read another book they might've potentially swiped from the library (Not from Kanon. They had learned their lesson, he thinks.). Takato had all but grabbed Kanon like a misbehaving puppy, dragging her with him and insisting that she would need fresh air ー dramatic statements about war could wait, he had said. First, she needed a breath of fresh air. Riichi had also left, too, saying he would report everything they had just learned to Seiichiro and Gen; Kanade was back, but the funeral proceedings had carried on from yesterday into this morning, leaving him tired and likely asleep. Kaiji and Riku had declared themselves to be tired as well, leaving him with Koki. For some reason, Riku had shot a look at him, loaded with meaning, as he had left, and Kaiji had only glanced between the two dark-haired boys, shaking his head slightly. 

Ever since they had left the calm and quiet (well, not _quite_ quiet) of the archives, the two of them had been walking through the castle in the most sunlit spots, occasionally cutting through outdoor gardens or simply stopping by large windows, peering down at courtyards, or towards the hills in the distance, or down towards the capital. From here, the capital shone colors of red and brown and muted gold, roofs mostly darker color to accompany the brightness of their buildings. He could see stone statues of the Vermilion Bird, standing regally on either side of an arched red bridge, running over a sparkling stream that ran around the length of the capital. Children, small specks in the distance, could be seen flying kites in the shapes of peasants and _koi_ fish, or were crouched by the banks of the stream, releasing small toy boats into its waters. A woman passed over the bridge, a basket of sheets held over her head, and a man pushing a large wooden cart walked the opposite direction, passing one another. The day was almost unfairly beautiful, and Ryu felt the reality of Kanon's statement lose some of its hold over him; the peaceful sights gently soothed his heart, and next to him he heard Koki give a contented sigh as he stared down at the scenery spread before them.

"I don't want to believe it," he murmured, and the redhead turned his head to look at him, "Your kingdom is so... peaceful, especially considering what happened last week. But everyone's still trying to live, despite everything, and the kids can still happily fly their kites in the sky without a care." His lips curved upwards in a smile, and he buried the bottom half of his face between his arms, which were resting on the windowsill, to hide it. "If this were Beifang, everything would be... quiet. Not literally, but no one would feel _right_ doing normal things, unless they were necessary. If someone in the neighborhood was even ill, we all held our breaths, waiting for them to get better, but we couldn't stand to bring ourselves to add a little good cheer during those times... Except for Takato, maybe." He wrinkled his nose. "Takato wasn't very similar to most people in Beifang; he wasn't very somber, or serious, unless he really needed to be. His take on the world was always to greet it with good cheer and energy." He felt a rush of fondness, which he didn't even bother to quell.

Koki giggled, "Yeah, that sounds right. That sounds just like Takato-san." There was a smile in his voice, and Ryu could almost feel the words radiating warmth next to him. The boy turned to him, eyes shining with curiosity. "What do you think it would've been like, then, if it were Dongfang?"

"Dongfang?" laughed Ryu, "You'd be better off asking Kanon than me. But, hmm, let's see," He glanced up at the sky, where fluffy clouds were languidly passing by overhead. "They'd probably be all 'rahh, vengeance!' or 'we must fight back like proper warriors!' and wouldn't even think of proceeding as normal until they got back at whoever tried to hurt them. Heck, I can imagine them being like that even in the tiniest of villages; they'd encourage the sick and ailing to keep fighting. I imagine it's... energetic there, but for a totally different reason." Koki laughed at his sudden voice changes, and he suddenly felt a rush of embarrassment; he only ever used such a way of speaking when he had been trying to entertain his younger siblings, and had been using it with the red-haired boy without a second thought.

Outside, a large kite, a shade of crimson, in the shape of a _koi_ had risen above the others, tail streaming behind it like flowing water. Below, on the grounds of the palace, he saw a young servant beckon towards it, frantically pulling the sleeves of an older woman. Koki's eyes had strayed elsewhere; following his gaze, he saw that he had been staring at the red arches of the _torii_ gates in the distance, small specks of red peering through the green foliage of the hill where the royal temple for Nan Fang was. He couldn't quite see the building in full, be he saw glimpses of stone statues and a wooden roof. 

A stray leaf from one of the trees had somehow winded up in the wine red of Koki's hair, and Ryu, without thinking, reached up to brush it off. The former's eyes widened in surprise as he plucked the leaf off with ease, noting with amusement that, upon closer inspection, the boy's hair had been tousled by the wind ー it wasn't too noticeable at a glance, but the sweep of his bangs over his face had been shifted somewhat, making his normally silky, dark red hair look a little fluffier than usual. Sort of like a small poodle after playing around outside, he thought, and laughed to himself.

Then he saw the boy's cheeks redden, looked at his hand, and realized at almost the exact same moment what he had just done.

"I," he stammered, "I just, there was a leaf in your, I mean," _Damn it, I can't stop stuttering,_ "I meant, there was a leaf in your hair so I just took it for you." He rubbed his neck awkwardly. "That's all." Suddenly feeling compelled to do _something_ about the odd atmosphere the two of them were generating, he added, "If I hadn't done it, you would've walked around the palace looking like a _tanuki_ with that thing in your hair. Y'know, those furry creatures with puffy tails and silly faces that have a leaf sitting on their head. You'd look just the part, if I'd kept that there." He waved the offending leaf tauntingly, and watched as the red on Koki's face slowly took on a different nuance.

"'Silly face'?" He felt himself grin as he saw Koki glower at him. "I don't suppose you've looked in a mirror recently, have you?" The redhead turned his head away, pouting. 

"Me?" he asked, his tone incredulous, "I'm no Riichi, but I definitely think my face isn't remotely _tanuki-_ like. At the very least, I don't make stupid expressions on my face with every passing moment." He laughed as the other squawked indignantly, swiping at him. He nimbly dodged to the side, watching with amusement as the other fought to regain his balance, glaring at him balefully. 

"My face isn't that dumb..." muttered the other resentfully, cheek still stuck out in a pout. He stood straight again, looking away, and Ryu felt a flash of very real panic that he may have taken this a little too far.

"I'm kidding," he said, gruffly, gently pushing the other's arm in a gesture of friendliness he had seen his brother do often. "What are you, a kid?"

Koki's face softened at that, and he in turn shoved Ryu back, with even less force than he had shoved the redhead with. "I know," he said, voice much more gentle than before, "I don't think you're that type of person, don't worry."

Ryu felt his own cheeks grow warm at the statement, and he turned his gaze away. "Who's worrying?" he asked, trying to keep his voice cool. It didn't help that his heart was beating at twice the normal speed it always did, and he kept forcing himself not to steal glances at the other's face, trying to see what sort of expression he was wearing. Koki, on the other hand, had walked over to the window across the one they had been standing in front of, opening some distance between them across the wide hall. He felt a sudden rush of something like loneliness at the physical distance between them, and steadfastly tried to ignore it, to no avail. The other windows gave a view of the inner walls of the palace, providing one with the sight of several outer walls of other parts of the structure, down into, from their location, a large courtyard, where Ryu had seen young soldiers practicing their blade work. According to Gen, who had passed Ryu by in the halls when he had been observing, the trainees usually preferred to do their drills outdoors, with the sun over their heads and a gentle breeze every now and then, rather than in the large and normally silent training halls. Ryu had later peeked into one of those said halls, and had immediately seen what the trainees had probably meant; the hall was spacious, yes, but it radiated a stern, imposing energy that likely increased in pressure when there were occupants in the room. A more natural atmosphere probably allowed them more leeway to get immersed in their exercises. 

"I just," came the soft murmur, so low that it was almost as if the boy had whispered the statement to himself, rather than to anyone in particular, "I just _can't_ see a war happening here, or anywhere in this kingdom. It's always been so," He paused, as if groping for the right words, and Ryu walked towards him slowly. The redhead's back was turned, and he didn't seem to be paying Ryu's approaching footsteps any mind. "Calm... I guess, or maybe peaceful? It's not like there haven't been bad things, it's just... this place feels so _normal,_ in a way. So untouchable to anything remotely terrible, like war, or famine, or terrible natural disasters that could cut whole towns down... but I guess lots of people feel that way about their home, in a sense. That no matter how bad things get, there are certain levels of terrible in the world that you can't reach, even if they happen in other places. If they're not near you, you don't... _feel_ anything, no connection, maybe sympathy or empathy, nothing more. Not a fear that it will happen to you. That sort of thing." He heard the boy suck in a deep breath, and his wine-red hair rustled slightly as the wind passed through the windows, teasing at it and making the red suddenly appear more vivid than normal; as if all the shades hidden in the dyed hair had come to the surface, in all their glory. He felt a vague urge to ask him about why he had decided to let his hair be colored that specific shade, but he kept quiet, letting the redhead continue talking. "So when Kanon-san said there might be a war if we went to this... 'convergence point', or whatever, I had, or have, a hard time believing it, or feeling the reality of it, maybe." The breath was released into an almost sad sigh. "That sorta makes me sound like a carefree person, huh? Someone too dumb or used to peace to actually fathom how deep and dangerous what we're doing goes."

Ryu came up next to the boy and, before his more rational senses could tell him otherwise, he gently wrapped his hands around the other's shoulder, leaning in gently and staring at the other's face. The redhead didn't seem shocked at the sudden closeness; he merely gazed back, face inquisitive but serene, and waited for Ryu to speak.

"You're not dumb, and it's not a bad thing to be used to peace," he said, softly, hand reaching out to hold the other's face tenderly. He marveled at the softness of the hair that curled near his fingers as he cupped the red-haired boy's cheek, and gazed into the mysteriously brown eyes that occasionally glinted a shade of something close to a deep red. "You lived in a small town in probably the most tranquil of the four kingdoms, and you grew up with little connection to anything remotely political on the continent. No one goes about living their daily life with the fear of war or famine or destruction in their minds, growing up at a time, and in a place, like this. Everyone's busy trying to live the normal lives they were born into and are trying to follow, and unless we were all in the midst of some epic, historical disaster since we were children, no one in your situation would grow up and let that kind of fear control them." He swallowed, trying not to let the chain of words he had thought up escape him; Koki's eyes were distractingly beautiful. "If anything, it's a _good_ thing to try and live a normal, happy life; no one should be allowed to condemn you for trying to live as you are to the best of your ability. Sure, there are people who do horrible things despite having the opportunity of a peaceful existence, but there are more like you, just trying to live in the normal to the best of their ability. It's not a bad thing that you're having trouble processing this whole 'doom and death' thing that gets dragged out of nowhere, for no clear reason." He gently ran his thumb over the boy's cheek, tracing the curve of his cheekbone, and watched as the pale skin took on a shade of light pink, dusting over his cheek and to his ears. But the boy accepted the touch without protest, almost leaning into it, eyelashes fluttering as his gaze traveled downwards, eyelids slowly closing like windows over that deep, gentle, and almost mysterious light. 

It wasn't until their noses were almost touching that he realized he had, at some point, brought his face ridiculously close to the other's ー the young boy had his eyes almost closed at this point, and was waiting with an air that seemed almost nervous, as Ryu stared at him intently. Feeling a sudden rush of embarrassment at his forwardness, he made to jerk his head back and take his hands off the other when, suddenly, he felt a soft, gentle warmth cover his own hand, and saw Koki wrapping his fingers around the hand Ryu was using to cup his face. 

"Thank you," The boy smiled at him, and it felt, to him, like the warmth of a beautiful sunny day, much like this one. He felt as if the rays of the sun had gathered around his every being. "I was right; you _are_ more kind than you let on to everyone else." A laugh emerged from the redhead, and the sunlight's rays, gathered around Ryu in his mind, suddenly seemed to glow brighter and warmer, making his body fuzzy and numb. 

Ryu let go of the redhead's shoulder, coughing awkwardly into his fist, "I didn't... I meant... I'm not..." He couldn't even formulate a proper statement, nor could he come up with a teasing comeback to lighten the mood. There was something open and vulnerable about the other's gaze, completely unguarded, and it took him a moment to realize that it was directed at _him,_ the only other person there. He felt a rush of confusion, along with something like fierce protectiveness ー but it was different, he knew, deep down, from the sort of protectiveness with which he watched over his younger siblings, or watched out for his older brother. This was more compulsive, more desperate, and unlike the natural instinct of siblings that got along instructing them to protect one another, it was something vaguely raw and carnal, with no hint of proper reasoning, considering he had met this person two weeks ago, and had only been properly acquainted with him for the span of a week.

He saw Koki tilt his head in slight confusion (opting to ignore the thoughts of how endearing he found the movement), but before either of them had the chance to speak, the atmosphere was shattered by a very out-of-place shout of, "Hey, Koki! Hey!" The two immediately leaped away from each other; more accurately, Koki jumped, startled, and Ryu quickly dropped the hand on his face, feeling both some amount of relief and an odd sense of childish resentment at the interruption. In the distance, Kaiji and Riku came running towards them, carrying some sort of paper bag each, with Takato behind them, carrying _three:_ two in his arms and a small one, somehow, sitting neatly on his head, which he balanced with care. He wasn't running towards them like Koki's two friends were, but he shot Ryu a mischievous grin, making him panic for a split second, worrying that they had seen everything that had transpired just now.

"Look!" This cheerful shout came from Riku, who proudly stuck out the bag he was holding with a flourish. "We found this awesome bread down at the capital! There was this really cute bakery Kanade-san was talking about a few days ago, and Takato-san agreed to come down with us to get it; isn't this awesome?! I can't believe I'm eating bread recommended to me by actual _royalty!_ " His cheeks were stretched wide into a grin as clear and pure as the blue sky, and Ryu heaved a silent sigh of relief in his mind that the two of them hadn't (hopefully) been seen. He saw Kaiji shooting him and Koki both glances, but he decided not to think too deeply of it ー the blonde, it seemed, was prone to glancing between the two of them often, as if marveling at the slight oddness of the duo, or at Koki's ability to somehow befriend Ryu, who had, from the beginning (despite not really meaning to), seemed to come off as standoffish. Takato was beaming, showing his bags off like trophies of some great battle, proclaiming, "We got lots of different types! Come on, let's go share them with everybody!"

Ryu glanced at Koki; the redhead was resolutely not looking his way, but considering the abrupt shift in atmosphere, he was likely as disoriented by what had just happened as he himself was. He felt a tiny bit of regret ー he didn't really know how he measured in terms of closeness with the redhead, and worried that perhaps he may have intruded too far into the boy's boundaries. But something told him such was not the case; he couldn't say he was certain, but the boy's demeanor didn't strike him as that of one who was upset at what Ryu just did ー on the contrary, while he had looked embarrassed, he had been _accepting_ the touch, making Ryu himself want to hold his head in confusion.

All he knew for sure, though, was that, even glancing at the side of Koki's face, the earlier emotions didn't fade, and he found himself looking forward to eating the bread the trio had bought at the capital, preferably ー although he'd never say it aloud ー sitting next to each other. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I could've ended the chapter with Kanon's last statement, but I felt compelled to write at least one lighter scene. Also because I suck at romance, I felt I needed to start working more on that component, because "eventual romance" still indicates romance, which I told myself I would write. But boy is it hard; I like build up but I have no clue how to do it in a good way.
> 
> Seriously, if you're still reading this, I love you with all my soul. I hope you and everyone you love have happy, long lives blessed with all manner of good, warm things. And if you're new, I hope the very same for you as well. 
> 
> Thank you, and I hope to see you all next chapter.


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shorter chapter this time around, sorry. My mental state has been doing jumping jacks in my mind so I had some trouble writing... there are probably errors in there I need to fix, but I decided to upload after flipping a coin forty one times. (I'm not lying, I actually did. Around the thirty third time the coin accidentally rolled under my bookshelf and I had to grab a new coin.)
> 
> This chapter is sorta filler in that nothing too huge or important happens. Well, something does, sorta, but it's at the end-ish. So, yeah. Filler-ish.

Aoi sighed and tossed yet another sheaf of paper aside. "This is getting us nowhere."

"No kidding," he heard Takato mutter from across the room; he watched as the large man's sifting about through the scattered documents sent a stack of papers flying, and he tried valiantly not to sigh too loudly. "You'd think a week of searching would actually, y'know, reveal _something,_ but there hasn't been a single letter from Xifang in all this, not even close." The cheerful man's chatter was broken off by a sudden yelp as he hit his head under the table, scrambling as he was to pick up the fallen documents. Aoi shook his head at Gabriel, who looked to be debating internally whether to give the man a helping hand, or to leave him be. 

Kanade heaved a sigh of his own, "I'm afraid that we will just have to accept it ー that there are no records or remains of the interactions my father _presumably_ had with the Opal Kingdom." Beside him, Gen let out a small hiss of annoyance as Takato's resumed hunt through the papers set up yet another white storm, and Seiichiro's eyes were closed as if he were bemoaning some great tragedy; Aoi could only imagine the trouble it would take to clean all this up. 

It couldn't be helped, however ー not when the letters Xifang had supposedly sent them were nowhere to be found, and now they had a whole new problem to deal with as well: the issue of the convergence point. Kanon had come to them, sharing details of yet another day of exploits and reveals, and when the words "convergence point" had left her mouth, everyone in the room had visibly gone pale.

Their search through the messenger's archives had gone on for the span of a whole week, and yielded little in results for the trouble it had taken. They had taken shifts between most of the older members of their "team" (if one could call this motley group of... _whatever_ they had come to be a 'team'): Kanade, Seiichiro, Gen, himself, Gabriel, Takato, Haru, Sho, Taichi, and Riichi. Kanon had been, despite her continuous protests, exempt from the task, seeing as her work was focused in the mahogany shelves of the palace archives, and the three boys from his village ー Koki, Kaiji, and Riku ーhad also been kept from the task; there were documents here, he realized, that even _he_ knew he wasn't supposed to be looking at. Takato's younger brother, Ryu, had taken to hanging around the three, so he too had been exempt from the task. There had been mountain-loads of things that needed to be done anyhow, and the cycle of tasks between all meant that no one was ever really not busy. 

The funeral itself, too, had been undergoing preparations through all of this ー this, by extension, had also lead to talks of Kanade's coronation ceremony; but after extensive talks with the other kingdom officials, it had been decided that the current threat against Nan Fang was of much more importance than talks of an official crowning ceremony, which could be held during a preferably more _peaceful_ time. But the funeral couldn't wait; no matter what, Kanade had been determined to expend all his energy into both tasks ー both to say his final farewells properly, and to work to uncover the threat that Xifang was bringing to their doorstep. Such vigor had been admirable, and during the ceremony, Aoi had almost asked aloud how on earth the prince was still managing to stand properly, despite the toll of, well, _everything_ recently. Aoi knew how to handle stress and loads of hard work, but he imagined that _this_ would've broken even him ー the heaviness and sorrow could be seen in the almost imperceptible slump of the young prince's shoulders, and the shadow cast on his expression. The young mayor wondered if this was the only expression of sorrow and weakness the well-bred prince allowed himself. And while the ceremony had been the highest honor that any departed soul could have gone through on the first steps of their journey from the shore of the living to the dead, the beauty of the many white lilies and the brilliance of the king's final garments couldn't mask the somber atmosphere of the people. Aoi remembered all the times he had cursed the king's incompetence, but even he knew, despite how hard it had been to admit, several times over, that the king had actually been rather well-loved ー the change between his stern persona and the kinder, smiley cheer he displayed for his people always threw some for a loop, but it made him more human and likable in the eyes of many. The procession's grief had signified as much.

(However, and while he had decided, ultimately, to chalk this up to his imagination, he had felt that the prince's sorrow had been marred by something... deeper, more severe than the loss of his father. Aoi knew their relationship hadn't been exactly _stellar,_ but something had nagged at him, in the way the young prince had stared at his father's forever sleeping face, with an expression he couldn't describe past complicated.)

The prince in question was stretching out his top half (and he somehow made _that_ gesture look regal as he did it, too), and, as if prompted, Takato arched his own top half backwards in a stretch, turning his neck from side to side as he did so. Faint popping noises could be heard over the occasional rustling of paper, accompanied by a soft cough or two, and Aoi realized that they had all been cooped up in here for a rather long time ー the whole day, in fact, considering they had started the day with the search, bent on finding the letters, _especially_ since Kanon had told them all yesterday about her discoveries with the convergence point. This had prompted Haru to suddenly speak of stolen credit, gesturing dramatically at his friends while spouting some such nonsense about how "he and his companions had, after valiantly making off with the book, discovered the hidden truth, revealed in its pages", to which the young girl had shot a burst of wind at them via her _jiéshi,_ promptly shutting them up. Riichi had shaken his head woefully, saying something about poets and their need to articulate at the most unnecessary of times, and while he himself could be inclined to agree, the instructor himself was of the chatty lot, and it felt rather like hypocrisy hearing it from _him._ Aoi had barely been acquainted with the man, but all he and Gabriel had learned was that he was hopelessly narcissistic, to the point it was almost a talent. He also appeared to bear no malice while doing it (as if his narcissism were completely natural, not a means by which to look down on others), making him even harder to puzzle out. Aoi had abandoned the effort after the second day of knowing him. Gabriel, being the rather honest soul he was, was still trying to piece an understanding of the man together in his mind, even now.

Seiichiro frowned slightly, holding out a stack of papers to Gen, who took it silently. "These have all been checked; put them in that pile over there. Kanade," He glanced at the prince, glasses glinting slightly in the muted lights of the room, "That was the last of the documents. I can do another check to see if there's anything we've missed, but everything in that last stack has remained the same since the last six times I checked it. I apologize." 

Gabriel sidled up to Aoi, holding a small stack of papers in his own hand as well. "Aoi-san, I checked these again, and they're all the same. Mostly documents related to finance, or trade with the western continent over a monthly basis, handling of any village disputes, troubles in the capital... none of it touches on Xifang. In fact, none of it touches on _any_ of the other three kingdoms, as odd as that may sound."

"Well, considering Beifang doesn't, y'know, _interact_ properly, and Dongfang is kinda bad at the whole 'sending letters and initiating proper inter-kingdom relationships' thing, that's hardly a surprise." Takato shrugged weakly. He had his legs folded and was sitting on the floor, papers fluttering about him like butterflies. At some point he had begun using magic through their search, hence the flying sheets of paper, but it hadn't made the job go any faster ー if anything, the amount of near-severe incidents that would've resulted in paper cuts in places that wouldn't stop hurting with just some ointment and a few bandages had tallied up to a total of over twenty times, and finally Kanade had (very politely) asked him to stop. 

Everyone lapsed into silence again; it was hardly new, and at this point they had all been acquainted to some degree that didn't make all silences stifling or awkward. Aoi watched as Takato absentmindedly fingered his stone, which was throwing off a pale light ー a remnant, he speculated, of the magic he had just been performing. He didn't have the knowledge of the royal family, but ー and as odd as it was for a normal denizen of Nan Fang, not even of noble birth, to know this ー he had quite a fair bit of elementary knowledge of the workings of the "God's stones", or their more commonly used term, the _jiéshi._ Never once had he actually seen the things in person, but he had known of their existence, which was more than he could say for pretty much anyone else in Crimson. The resource was so sparsely used nowadays that their existence was no longer common knowledge in the south. The stones were lovely, he observed, watching the colors slowly swirl and dim, until they died away completely, leaving Takato fiddling with what looked like nothing more than an oval-shaped rock, smooth and rounded, like a dull opal, with a quiet sheen. There was nothing about it that screamed "magic stones of power with the blessings of nature"; at the very least, the words "God's stones" didn't quite _fit_ with what he was seeing, and he wondered, offhandedly, who had ever come up with the term, and why.

"It's _weird,_ isn't it?" In the quiet of the wide space that was the documents archives, Takato's voice sounded even louder than usual, cutting through the silence and eventually taken in by the mountains of neatly stacked (the stacks near the loud man aside) papers. "Am I the only one who thinks this is really, _really_ weird? Why aren't the letters here? Why isn't there quite literally _anything_ here that indicates there was any beef or something between Nan Fang and Xifang?"

"What _I_ want to know," snapped Gen, his patience for the scattering and the searches appearing to have hit its limit, "If someone, assuming there _is_ someone, out there stole away with the documents, how come _no one_ noticed?"

"Magic." Takato blinked, staring at the man like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Gen rolled his eyes. "Right," he said, voice sarcastic, "Magic. Of course."

"It wouldn't be that simple," Seiichiro said, his lack of a scolding word to appease his irritated coworker an indication of his own troubled state of mind. "If things could be accomplished so easily by magical feats, then there would be no point of... well, pretty much anything, I suppose. Imagine someone performed such a feat ー stole information from right under our noses, undetected. How would that have worked for them?"

"Well, I imagine they would've used a teleportation spell to get into the palace..." Takato frowned, "But wait; Kanon said that takes a _ton_ of magic energy from the _jiéshi..._ okay, maybe they used teleportation, spent up most of their _jiéshi,_ then snuck into the messenger's archives... or teleported straight there?" Aoi watched as the tall man scratched his head, voice slowly spiraling into his continued monologue, which was becoming increasingly more confusing to follow. "No, wait, they can't teleport unless they _know_ where something is, specifically... so either they already knew, or they didn't and had to search? But then someone, like those guys guarding the door would've noticed, so that means... he teleported in...? Wait but then, that means they knew about Nan Fang's interior? So then they grabbed the documents... and then teleported back out? But then they would've needed a lot of _jiéshi_ to pull that off, meaning they had more than one...? But wait... Huh? Huh?" He clutched his head, and they all watched as he crouched down. "Wait, wait, hold on; I'm giving myself a headache. Ouch." 

"Well," Aoi told the crouching man dryly, "You managed to give us a pretty good guess as to what likely happened. Which of course, leaves us with the more _pressing_ questions: who and why?"

"The method is just as pressing," Kanade said quietly, "If an outsider could teleport in here so easily, then they could do it again. We would need toー" "Wait, wait! I just remembered! They probably couldn't!"

Kanade blinked at the interruption, and Gen shot Takato a small scowl, which was completely missed on the taller man. He waved his arms frantically, as if doing so would summon memories from the depths of his mind. "Well, I meant an _outsider_ probably couldn't. Kanon said, erm, I think she said that teleporting to a location requires a 'checkpoint' to be there beforehand, which was why I think, uhhh, those guys from Xifang didn't bother teleporting in here in the first place. Which was kinda funny, right? You'd think with how powerful they'd been they could've just appeared here like ' _whoosh,_ these totally evil baddies have taken the stage!' or something."

"And your point is...?" Gabriel asked, tentatively.

"Oh! Right," Takato scratched his head, abashed, "So whoever broke in, _assuming_ they used teleportation, would've had to be someone from the Nan Fang side. Right? 'Cos no way anyone outside has ever been let into the palace's room for official documents and what-not; I mean that shit is _super_ top secret."

Kanade stared at him for a while, brow scrunched, before shaking his head. Takato blinked at the gesture, asking "Why not? It seems super valid to me." Then, he paused, and as if suddenly realizing the true implications of his words, he immediately hung his head. "Oh, no, wait, I didn't mean to say it like _that,_ " he fumbled, voice tinged with regret for the carelessness of his earlier statement, "I'm not saying there's a traitor ー I mean, there _could,_ but that doesn't mean there is ー but maybe someone from Xifang, or even Dongfang, who was pretty familiar with the palace?" He shot them all a lopsided grin, as if trying to lighten the mood, and while the smile had no effect on the majority of them, Aoi saw Kanade give a small smile of his own in response.

The prince let out a small laugh, so soft it almost sounded akin to a sigh. "I know what you meant," he told the taller man, voice gentle, "It's fine. It's not as if the possibility has never once crossed my own mind. Although," Here his gaze turned sorrowful, and he gently ran his hands over the table, buried under the stacks and stacks of files. "I would very much prefer it if such was not the case. Doubting my own people is... unpleasant, to say the very least."

"You don't have to tell _me_ twice," Takato grumbled. It wasn't a grumpy sound, but rather uttered in a familiar and friendly manner, like that of a child spilling their woes on a friend. "Trust me, if there's anything I _don't_ wanna deal with, it's spies and traitors. But," he hurriedly added, likely trying to avoid more slips of the tongue (he saw Gen shoot the man a stern glare, as if daring him to say something even remotely insensitive), "I'm sure there's another reason. We'll find 'em, don't worry, and then we can all beat the stuffing out of them until they cough up the letters and are sorry that they ever made us have to search for them in the first place." He threw out his arms for dramatic effect, and Aoi wondered how many more papers this man would send flying until he was satisfied ー he's reasonably sure that the majority of the mess in the room could be attributed to the tall man's over-exaggerated gestures and occasional clumsiness. 

"All that aside," Aoi shot the windows a glance; he could tell from the brightness that it was well into the afternoon, and they had all been here since early _morning._ "Shall we take a break here, then? I have the sneaking suspicion, although it is _completely baseless,_ that we may not find what we are searching for here, just as we have not been able to for the past seven days, where we searched for about ten hours a day." Gabriel was shooting him a look of exasperation at the sarcasm in his tone, and he saw Kanade raise an eyebrow as he stared down at the young mayor. _Stared down,_ he thought, followed up with a bitter grumble of _I hate tall people sometimes._

"Funny, I was just thinking the same thing," came the cool response from the prince, and Aoi felt his own eyebrows raise; he hadn't expected the well-mannered prince to be capable of wit. Nearby, Gen and Seiichiro were shooting each other incredulous looks; either at his continued lack of respect towards almost anyone and anything, status be damned, or Kanade's own capability to have some venom in his tongue, which he showed little of. Aoi suspected that if someone got the young prince going, then every person in the kingdom might just very well have a heart attack learning that their beloved prince wasn't exactly the pure angel they all thought him to be. The bespectacled retainer was looking at the prince with a mixture of fondness and exasperation, as if debating whether to chastise him for his joining of the banter, or to simply watch the prince enjoy being a little more "casual" ー if that was the word for it ー but when he caught Aoi looking, his face immediately froze over, becoming as silent and as cool as stone. A bit odd, he thought, but decided not to dwell on it further; it wasn't really of interest to him anyhow.

"Well then!" Takato beamed, throwing his arms out wide, "Let's all get lunch then!" He stood up suddenly, promptly slipping over the papers he was standing on, falling over and consequently hitting the table on his way down, inciting a chaotic scramble to help him up, resulting in Kanade nearly being pulled down himself, and Gabriel falling into a chair. The storm of papers, he noted as he watched the mad scramble unfold in front of him, seemed to be almost smugly laughing at them as they flew about, making yet another mess. Gen shouted a string of colorful words in such a creative manner that he felt tempted to take notes, and Seiichiro tried to cover Kanade's ears ー to no avail, seeing as the chaos had him distracted, and he was asking Gen to repeat what he had just said in a curious manner so genuine it was painful.

Aoi envisioned that, one day, the future monarchs of Nan Fang would be standing in this room, scratching their heads as they stared at old official documents, preserved nicely over time, and found them covered in footprints and wrinkled, as if someone had slipped on them and sent them flying. He hoped it wouldn't be _too_ detrimental to the kingdom's future.

* * *

"I know what you're thinking." 

"Don't say it."

"I'm gonna say it if you're not gonna say it."

"Seriously. Don't. I swear to Zhuque, I will shove one of those twisted pieces of bread we bought with Takato-san the other day up your mouth if you say anything."

Riku grinned mischievously at his blonde friend, who had his ears covered adamantly, shaking his head and refusing to let the raven-haired boy's words continue any further. The taller of the two pouted, and he pushed back the blue fringe of his air, wheedling, "Come _on,_ Kaiji, it's not such a huge deal." He shook his friend's arm, much to the other's annoyance.

"If it's not, then stop talking to me about it." The cat-like youth glowered at him, resentfully pulling off another chunk of apple, which he tossed out into the gardens for the birds to eat. "Do birds eat fruit?" he had asked his longtime friend, but had proceeded with breaking off chunks and throwing them out into the grass without waiting for the response. Several birds, large and small, had already come and gone, taking the bits of apple with them. Riku hoped it was okay; he didn't want to learn later that this was, say, a certain variety of apple that was somehow poisonous to only birds. That would probably tear at his conscience for several months.

The events of the past week had been hectic and hazy, with barely room to process what exactly the three of them had been wrapped into. (Koki kept apologizing for this. He hadn't stopped until Kaiji had grabbed him in a headlock and _made_ him stop.) What he knew was that they were currently in some sort of trouble with Xifang, the Opal Kingdom, which was why they had been attacked that night, on the prince's coming-of-age ceremony. Which was _rude,_ in his opinion; beef with one another or no, he found that there was nothing that excused ruining one of the events of anyone's life that only ever happened once in a lifetime, and killed their parents too, at that. And the idea of plots and intrigue scared him, too: it was intense and sounded like an adventure, sure, but there were too many things happening for him to even feel a little awed that he was caught up in it. He couldn't ー not when he had seen the casket for the king two days ago, and had sat in the infirmary last week and heard the troubled cries of traumatized party guests, who hadn't expected ー not even in their wildest dreams ー to be attacked.

When Koki had explained things to the two of them more thoroughly than all the other adults had, the first thing he had done was apologize; he had meant to tell them, eventually, but certainly not in the way Haru and his companions had, nor had he wanted them to become so involved so _soon._ When faced with the redhead's apologetic and guilt-stricken face, the first thing he had thought, rather hazily, was that, in his own way, Koki considered himself to be responsible for protecting the two of them, same as they felt for him, and by involving them, he had failed to do so. So his first response had been to hug him, close, no questions asked, and then to scold him severely for even thinking of trying to venture into this alone. _We're just as worried as you are about us, idiot,_ he had cried, and Kaiji had been silent the whole time, staring at the shortest of the trio intensely, as if trying to convey his own emotions through the sheer power of his gaze alone. Koki had eventually started crying too, leaving them all a mess, and Riku had seen the door open and then close for a fraction of a second, and he imagined Ryu or Takato had read the room and decided to postpone their entry.

 _Like three peas in a pod, all of us,_ he'd joked to Kaiji later that day, after Koki had fallen asleep. It had been late at night, but his blonde friend had made no move to go to bed himself, instead sitting on his bed, back against the wall, staring at nothing in particular. When his friend had given him an inquiring glance, he had clarified: _We all think we're trying to protect one another, but in the end we wind up telling each other everything anyways. But then we go back to worrying for one another endlessly, trying to play the caretaker, the hero, and it brings us right back all together again._ Kaiji had laughed weakly at that, and Riku, perhaps feeling a little loose around the casual and calm air the blonde gave off, had continued, without really meaning to, _we all feel the same, all of us, about one another._

Riku turned his face upwards, taking in the harsh sunlight beating down from above. Luckily it wasn't terribly humid that day, with the occasional cool breeze blowing through, countering the glare from above. Kaiji had stopped tearing the apple in his hand apart, and was biting into what remained of the fruit, resolutely ignoring Riku's prodding and attempts to continue their conversation, which he knew the blonde had no real wish to join. 

(Which he didn't see _why;_ it was rather a cause for excitement, in his mind.)

"Don't be like that," he grinned, nudging his friend once more, gently this time, "Besides, you didn't say a single word when I pushed you out of the room to let those two have some time together~" He finished the last part in a sing-song, and Kaiji scrunched his brow noticeably at his cheerful tone.

"You," the blonde deadpanned, pointing at him, "Are creepy. Don't talk to me." 

"Jerk."

"I'll take it," Kaiji shrugged, "At least I'm not the one who's delusional." He took another bite of apple, chewing slowly, and Riku debated taking the fruit out of his hands and lobbing it into the flower bushes ー at least then Kaiji would no longer have something to take his mind off of Riku's insistence on talking. 

"I think it's super obvious, don't you?" Riku began to viciously poke his friend's arm, earning him annoyed glares accompanied with chewing noises that steadily (and likely purposely) increased in volume, trying to shut him up. Stubbornly, he continued, "I can't say for sure about Koki, but I'm _pretty_ sure that Ryu guy likes him. Or is starting to. Like, a lot." He grinned up at the blonde, who rolled his eyes in response. However, with his mouth currently occupied with bites of apple, he couldn't say anything to counter or knock down the raven-haired boy's words, and his black-haired friend took that as his cue to keep talking, mouth curved up mischievously.

"Takato-san said he's never seen his brother get that friendly with anyone his age _ever._ And Koki too; he's never bothered trying to get so close with anyone else, aside from us, either. He's stupidly shy sometimes, or just," "Dumb?" "Don't say that." Kaiji had swallowed the remains of his apple, steadily interrupting Riku's happy chattering. His face was cool, but Riku could tell he was desperately trying to avoid the topic ー he was almost like a father, he thought with amusement, trying to deny that their precious daughter had found someone special. Something akin to that. The imagery made him snort out a laugh, unwittingly, and the blonde gave him a narrow-eyed look of suspicion. 

"Seriously, _where_ do you come up with this stuff?" Kaiji was still staring at him with a slightly cross expression, eyebrows knitted together as he crossed his arms. "I don't think normally anyone would look at two people who haven't known each other for too long and go 'oh, yeah, they're totally into each other.' Just saying." 

Riku felt a smile ー not a smirk, or a grin, but a smile ー pull up the corners of his mouth. "Maybe to you," he said, voice sunny, "That would be _sensible,_ sure. But that doesn't mean it applies to everyone. Don't you look at other people's expressions, Kaiji? Ryu and Koki get into arguments really fast, yeah, and they won't stop making quips at each other ー well, mostly Koki keeps getting riled up by Ryu's every comment or jab ー but sometimes Ryu looks at Koki with this really soft look and he gets super embarrassed if he notices anyone watching, and then he sticks close to him when he's not with his brother, or just both, and Koki follows Ryu around too. A lot. Very naturally, like it's casual, but he always looks so happy doing it." He sprang up from the bench, twirling around with a flourish. One of the perks, he thought, of knowing how to dance was that, whether there was music or not, the moves ingrained in his head were always the perfect ways to express his emotions when words weren't enough. As if appealing to Kaiji his excitement, he began pacing back and forth, lightly stepping as if in a dance, feeling the blonde's eyes following him as he did so.

Kaiji sighed, closing his eyes, "Alright, _say_ you were on to something. I still don't see why you're so focused on _that,_ considering there's a bazillion other things ー mostly horrible, but important and life-threatening ー going on. If those two really do have... something, for each other, then shouldn't you just leave that be?" The tall blonde tapped his foot a little, leaning forward to look his friend in the eyes as he danced past him. "I'm more worried about what we just heard from Kanon-san and the others about this... convergence point thing, or whatever." His eyes, which he had opened, had taken on a serious gleam, trapping Riku in place and not allowing him to continue with his bout of good cheer.

Saying the talks of the "convergence point" had been the last thing on Riku's mind would be an understatement, to say the least. He normally tried to be the more positive of their trio, but even he hadn't been able to distract himself from what they had learned about this supposedly sacred and forbidden place, where no one was allowed to go and could lead the kingdoms straight into war. More specifically, he couldn't keep his mind completely off the portion Ryu's trio had mentioned, about the place having the ability to mess with a person's mind. 

_ What's worse, it can apparently do... strange things, for lack of better phrase, to a person's mind.  _ Kanon's words floated up in his head from the corners of his memory, where he had carefully set the words aside.

"Strange things," he swallowed thickly, before continuing, "Can mean anything, y'know." It was the last bit of resistance he could offer, but even he knew he had to accept the truth.

"'Strange things' would also constitute memory loss," was Kaiji's cool response, albeit with a slight quaver at its edge, "If anything, it would add up, in a lot of ways. His lack of any injuries to the head when we found him, to start off with." He stood up, walking up towards Riku so he was standing shoulder to shoulder with his friend. They stared at the growth of flowers around them for a while, neither saying anything. Riku wished he could go back in time, chastising himself for not dragging out their prior conversation with more force. 

After some trepidation, Kaiji continued, "If Koki... went to the convergence point, when he was a kid, then that means he..." He crouched down, staring deeply into the deep shades of pink and purple and blue, all scattered through the hydrangea patches. Riku remembered, somewhat vaguely, that he had also wanted to see the corner of the palace where a patch of crocuses had been growing, unhindered and without human help. An out of place thought, having nothing to do with Kaiji's words, but the memory flitted through his mind, unbidden. Next to him, Kaiji had gently taken one of the edges of a large hydrangea, the color of a muted evening sky, a shade of deep purple like the first moments of a clear night. "He broke the ancient laws, or whatever Kanon-san said they're called. Or Takato-san, or Ryu; I forgot. But the point is, he might've been there... but he wasn't supposed to. He shouldn't have been. He could've... he could've started a war, depending on where he was from. " The last part was almost whispered, but he heard it as clearly as if Kaiji had voiced the words loudly, at the top of his lungs, and he felt a twinge in his heart at the fear there, in his friend's voice.

"Kaiji," _stop,_ he wanted to say, but the words caught in his throat, leaving him unable to continue. He had a feeling ー a baseless fear, to be more precise ー that voicing these... _theories_ about their friend was slowly opening the gate to a path of some sort of unbearable pain, or loss. But his blonde friend continued, in a voice that wavered between hesitation and resolve ー hesitating whether he should continue speaking, and resolve to try and force his way towards the truth. But something told him, a whisper in his heart, that going further would mean giving _something_ up, and a small voice inside him whispered to stop Kaiji from speaking, to simply wait for the truth to make itself known, rather than delve themselves. 

"Maybe he was on the outskirts," Kaiji bit his lip, "They were saying that that's the furthest one can go, but it does plenty to mess with your head. He was all scratched up and injured, too, remember? Did something happen to him while he was there? What if, normally, if he'd stayed on the outer rim of the convergence point, he wouldn't have lost _all_ his memories ー maybe that was a result of going too deep? Does the forest fuck with your head even worse the further you goー" 

"Kaiji, _stop._ " This time, for sure, he said it aloud, and his friend went quiet, startled, most likely, by the strength in his voice, coupled with the barely repressed frustration. 

_ You think I don't want to know? _ he was tempted to say, as he bit his lip. _I want to know what happened to Koki, where he came from, just as much as you do. But it's not our **business** to be speculation about it, not when, just like you said, there's a load of other things we need to worry about. So what if he went to the convergence point? So what if he may have incited a war? He was a _child _then, and he can't remember, and the more we speculate about him like this, the more it feels like we're treating him like... something else, not our friend. Like a mystery that needs to be solved, or a fairy or some sort of creature we've never seen before. It's not **right**. _In the end, however, it was all he could do to muster up a "Let's not... talk about this, like that. It doesn't feel okay, doing it." His stomach ached, a little, and he gazed at the hydrangeas with something almost like anger, wondering how his friend would react if he suddenly tore into the flowers. Probably shocked that his normally pacific friend would do such a thing.

Kaiji didn't respond, nor did he continue, his silence an indication that Riku's unspoken message had somehow made itself understood in his mind. He had likely been thinking something similar; unlike his raven-haired friend, however, he had tried to articulate his thoughts, despite his instincts screaming not to. Riku felt another ache in the depths of his stomach, again, and he suddenly wished the redhead in question were here, so he could poke fun at him ー ease the tension, somewhat. Maybe tease him about Ryu, a little, he thought with an internal laugh. 

They stayed there for a while, the two of them, gazing absentmindedly at the hydrangeas, the occasional gust of wind blowing through. Hydrangeas had always been a mystery to him; they bloomed bright and full and beautiful, made up of several tiny little petals all shaped like flowers of their own. Or were they flowers of their own, perhaps? It was one of the small mysteries of his life: were the large giant bundles of color, blooming like round fireworks of shades ranging across the spectrum of blue to pink to purple, the hydrangea flowers themselves, or the small flower-shaped bits he had always seen as petals? The question had made itself known to him via Koki, who had, he remembered fondly, done his very best to memorize the names of almost every flower they could find, determined to know them all. When they had both shown him the hydrangeas in bloom, that was the first question he had asked of them: "Were the tiny little flowers making up the bundle the actual 'flowers', or was that the large bundle itself?" The two of them, still barely twelve themselves, hadn't known how to answer, and in the end they had reserved it for a question to ask the adults. Now that he thought about it, he mused with another internal giggle, they had never got around to asking, too distracted were they by all their other activities and fun. Questions that they reserved as "later" for adults rarely ever remained in the memories of young children for too long; their short-spanned patience and capability for memory had still been young, thoughts quickly slipping through their fingers like sand.

Riku felt Kaiji opening his mouth slowly, readying himself to speak once more, and he tilted his ear in the latter's direction, a silent gesture for him to say whatever it was he needed.

"I..." Kaiji fidgeted uncomfortably, face reddening as he said the following, "I think... you might be onto something with the whole 'Ryu and Koki might like each other' thing." He coughed, abashed, and turned his head to the side. Knowing his normally cool and easy-natured friend, such gossip-like talks struck him as the sort of thing only chatty schoolboys and girls did. Riku felt his own face loosen in tension, gently breaking out into a smile as he watched his friend's awkward attempts to lighten the mood.

"Oh?" he tried, teasingly. "Do tell."

"Ryu was making a... something, out of wood. He's been doing it for a while; I saw him, just a few days ago, carving it up. And I, kiiiiinda maybe accidentally overheard him telling his brother he was making it for someone, and then a little later he hid the thing under his pillow when Koki came into the room. But," He scratched his neck, which was also slightly red, "I can't say for sure."

Riku grinned triumphantly, "See! See, I told you, it's totally plausible." He gave his friend a friendly nudge with his elbow, flashing an exaggerated victory sign. Kaiji laughed in response, but there was something behind it, under the cheer, covered in layers that Riku couldn't understand, making him wonder if his friend was keeping something from him. If his ears weren't playing tricks on him, the laugh had a slight drop of melancholy to it, although maybe it was the aftereffects of their prior conversation. 

They lapsed into a more comfortable silence this time, and Riku stood up, stretching out his body. Part of him was missing the village, where his parents were surely worried about him and his friends. They had been corresponding via letters, and after much back and forth arguing that became rather scrambled due to the inability of letters to make their way from sender to receiver at the speed of light, their families had all finally conceded. Of course, there had been several embellishments in their sharing of the details, and they had left just a few _small_ parts out of their letters ー namely, their direct involvement with the current conflict between Xifang and Nan Fang. _Now that I think about it,_ he realized, wrinkling his nose slightly in thought, _I left out the part about there being trouble with Xifang specifically._ Kaiji had also stood, stretching out like a cat, languid and unbothered. His well-shaped eyes narrowed with the sun's glare, and he glanced around them for a bit, his sudden silence indicating he was lost in thought. Riku had been around both his friends for long enough to notice the changes, and attach meanings to them. 

"Hey," Kaiji frowned, "I'm about to ask something a little weird, but..." His tone wasn't exactly _serious,_ more a little contemplative, as if deciding how to pose his question best. Riku looked at his friend; the blonde had a to his face, fist curled in front of his mouth in a pose of one in deep thought. 

"Go ahead," Riku responded, tone joking but curious, "At this point it wouldn't feel weird if you asked me if turtles could fly." _Actually, there might be_ , he thought to himself, but he quickly shook away that line of thinking before he went off on a tangent. 

"So I overheard Ryu and Takato talking again, and..." 

"Again with the eavesdropping?"

"It's not 'eavesdropping' if it was an accident," huffed Kaiji, "Anyway, so I overheard them, and,

"Do you know what a 'forsaken child' is?"

* * *

_..........._

_'What's wrong?'_

_Huh?_

_'You're quiet today... is something the matter?'_

_.... My brother..._

_'The one you told me about?'_

_Yeah, he... he's been acting funny lately._

_'Funny?'_

_He won't talk to me much. He's also getting into lots of fights too... I'm worried about him._

_'.............'_

_I try to stick by him but lately it's getting harder and harder. He's started to hang around all sorts of other people, and I'm... scared._

_'.... Do you know why?'_

_..... No. I don't._

_'When did he start acting funny?'_

_You've gotten awfully more talkative, haven't you? If I'd told this story to you months ago you would've just looked at me with blank eyes and said 'huh', or something like that._

_'Oh... I'm sorry.'_

_..... I'm not complaining, y'know. Loosen up a little._

_'...... Okay.'_

_Anyway... I don't know. Nothing really_ happened _to us that should've changed us a whole lot. We live in a little village, far from the center of our kingdom, and nothing really changes for us that much. Except meeting you, that is._

_'............'_

_But he suddenly started acting funny, and no one knows why. I've been trying to hang around him more often, to make sure he doesn't do anything crazy, or rash._

_'Isn't this.... kind of a waste, then?'_

_What do you mean?_

_'I mean... maybe it's better that you keep an eye on your brother instead of coming here...? You told me that you live in a small village close to the border, but...'_

_............_

_'I don't want you to waste your time on me when you're so clearly worried about your brother. He's family; you should always prioritize your family, especially if you love one another. You told me that, remember?'_

_.............._

_'.... I don't want to be a burden. Not when I'm... nobody, to anyone.'_

_.........y that......_

_'Hm?'_

_Don't say that._

_'...........'_

_You're not a burden. Not once, not ever. I come here all the time because_ _I_ want _to, not because I feel... obligated, or whatever weird thing you think it is. I can check on my brother_ and _you at the same time, so don't ever say anything like that, ever again._

_'............'_

_I promised, didn't I? I'd take you around to see all sorts of places. You're not nobody._

_'...........'_

_I mean... you gave me your **name** after all._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OKAY so well, Ryu and Takato really need to think about where to have small talk. Also, how to have small talk. And who might be overhearing said small talk. Yeesh.
> 
> Recently I've got a craving to right short stories, but of course that's likely gonna do all sorts of funny schedule things (who am I kidding I never had a proper one in the first place). If the time comes and I feel up to it, I'm gonna open my Twitter account (which is mostly for games, though), and I'll take suggestions/requests, if anyone offers any. 
> 
> On a side note, @byullight's Battle of Tokyo (LDH) based fanfic "Furusato (ふるさと)" is like actual serotonin for my mind. It's really well thought-out and the world building around it is deep and imaginative, considering we got very little in way of BOT lore and stuff. So, like, they probably don't need me to promote anything considering the fic already has a well-deserved giant following, but seriously, it's amazing. I want to someday write them a gift fic purely out of gratitude (of course, my meager skills are of little value, but it's the only way I know hoooooow :') ) for their story, and if they see this I want to express all my gratitude for creating one of the best fics I've ever written. Seriously, you rock.
> 
> And so do all of you, old and new readers alike. I may have poor mental health standards, but I know for sure that you are all amazing.


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't wanna say I'm posting this chapter early in case I can't post the next one for a while, since I don't actually know, but...  
> My pace may or may not slow down at some point in the future. Or never, if things work out well. Only the future can say for sure. 
> 
> But anyway, here's another chapter. I keep telling myself I won't make things anymore complicated but then where would the fun in writing a (beginner's attempt at) plot go? Gotta (desperately try to) keep everyone on their toes. As always, please leave a kudos or comment if you have the time, and I hope you enjoy this new chapter.

_I always hated this place. It was dark, and there was always something ー someone ー out there that I couldn't see, watching me. I don't even remember why I was put here in the first place. All I knew was that I had had no say in the matter. I've been here ever since; no one comes to see me, and I don't think anyone ever will. So I spent lots of my time praying to the stars ー the only things I could see clearly from here ー that I would find someone, **anyone** , to talk to. I didn't care if it was human, beast, or plant. It was lonely here. **I** was lonely. _

_I didn't actually think anyone would show up, though._

_The person didn't talk too much at first, and I couldn't either. That day, I finally learned that using one's voice was supposed to be natural, and not doing so for a long, long period of time meant it would be hard to use again. But I managed to. Somehow._

_.........................._

_He asked me my name. I'm not supposed to give people my name. He left when I didn't tell him. He was upset. Maybe he won't come back. The idea scared me. He promised to get me out of here once I told him. But I couldn't believe that. No one had ever said anything like that before. I didn't know what he meant._

_.........................._

_He came back, and started talking about many things. His older brother, who he played with and fought with; his parents, who raised and cared for him. He talked about the different places on the continent, and the many sights one could see. Types of flowers, names of constellations, the sorts of fish that lived in the lakes, the names of animals he had seen or heard of, fairy tales and some of his favorite stories. I tried to memorize them all, but I couldn't. I tried to answer his questions, but compared to him, I didn't know much. That made me... kinda sad._

_..........................._

_I told him my 'name'. Not my real one, but one I made up, after he told me yet another story. He's told me so many, I don't know if he recognized it or not. He seemed to like it, though. He says it often, although I'm starting to think he really_ does _know I made it up. I hope he's not upset..._

_..........................._

_He came again, but he was very distracted. Anxious about his brother. He's been telling me for a while that his older brother had been acting funny for a long time, out of the blue for no apparent reason. I don't know what he means by 'acting funny', but he was really worried. I hope he's okay._

_..........................._

_He didn't come again. Maybe something awful happened with his brother? The idea scared me._

_.........................._

_I'd stopped praying to the night sky a while ago, after my first wish was granted, but I started again. I don't know if the stars will listen this time, but I have to hope. I pray every night to them that he and his brother are fine. They are safe. Nothing bad has happened._

_..........................._

_I can't count time, but several days and nights have come and gone, and he hasn't returned._

_..........................._

_Something in the forest moved the other night. I don't know what it was. It was dark. It was scary. I want to flee, but I'm afraid that if I move, it will kill me._

_.........................._

_Sometimes I think my mind is funny. Yesterday, I think I was upset. I think. I don't really remember. But I know that I was angry, and I shouted and cried. But today, I'm really, really tired._

_.........................._

_I don't care if he doesn't come back anymore._

_I stopped praying. It's quiet again. It rained the other night, but thankfully I managed to escape the storm._

_..........................._

_....................._

_........How did I manage to escape the storm? I didn't think I could move._

_But I can. I can move. I can get out of here on my own._

_..........I didn't have to wait. I could've just left._

_I'm free._

_I'm free. I can leave. I can run away. I can go anywhere I want._

_Even though I've been abandoned, I can go anywhere I want._

_............But y'know, it's kinda funny...._

_Even when I'm free, for some reason... everything just hurts so, so much._

* * *

_Southern coast of Nan Fang, near the ocean_

The smell of the sea was something one who was normally accustomed to living far away from it was something that was hard to get used to, even after a year. It was no longer as irritating as the first two months had been, but the stench still made his nose crinkle, and he spent much of his time trying to test new incense and herbs, hoping to push away the scents of the ocean that seemed to have permeated into every inch of the small house. It didn't help that the south could also get ridiculously humid, especially during the warmer seasons. It made sense; Zhuque was the beast of flame, thus giving him control over the summer ー it was rather fitting that he had contracted himself with the Crimson Kingdom, Nan Fang, which had been set up in the south, where the weather ranged from mildly warm to abnormally humid. The growing humidity did no favors for the stench, either, and despite his charge's languid complaints about the strong scents of incense and smoke, he usually set about trying to find some scent ー preferably of the floral kind ー to counteract the overpowering one of the sea. His ward sometimes teased him, saying he was too stuffy, but there were times where he very seriously begged his guardian not to bother with trying to scrub out the sea's smell; it made him feel safe, he said, as if the stench were a reminder that they were somewhere far from their previous home, where danger had always been an arm's length away. While he couldn't bring himself to completely accept life by the sea, his young ward was thoroughly enjoying it ー it was hardly a surprise, considering it had been hard to see the ocean from where they had previously lived. Nan Fang had the best access to the sea, with several villages lined up near the shores and ports open for trade. The southern portion of the water surrounding the continent had hence been dubbed the Sea of Zhuque, or the Vermilion Sea for short. The eastern sea was occupied by Dongfang, hard to pass through and mostly occupied at its shores with their imperial army, leaving it a rather hostile place to set up one's home. Like Nan Fang, their portion of the sea was dubbed the Sea of Qinglong, or the Blue Sea for short. There were fishing villages there too, from what he had heard, but they were fewer in number than the south and smaller, and the number of soldiers near the waters would have been an unwelcome sight for him and his fellow runaway.

Beifang was north, but they didn't control the northern sea. The north was a colder place than any of the other three kingdoms, and occupied by high mountain ranges, rocky and covered in mists, giving it an eerie appearance to outsiders. Beyond the misty mountains of Beifang, however, was an expanse of land that went further north up the continent, but that land was considered off-limits: it was even colder than Beifang was, and hard to access by sea. The territory there was called the Untouched North, and very little was known about what was there. Some rumors ー completely baseless, but intriguing ー whispered that there was a secret mine of _jiéshi_ there, ripe and untouched, that Beifang kept in reserve in case of an emergency. Considering the current _jiéshi_ predicament the three kingdoms were facing, it seemed that that rumor may have been completely off the mark ー if Beifang had any reserves of the magic stones, then they wouldn't have been caught up in the _jiéshi_ shortage. Even with how secretive they were, there _were_ ways to sniff out such information, and he had (not to brag) been rather skilled at digging it up. Despite Beifang's lack of control over their waters, however, the northern sea was still called the Sea of Xuanwu, or the Black Sea, and it was still considered their territory, by ancient right. 

Xifang had very little to do with the sea; unlike their northern counterpart, there was no expanse of land separating them from reaching the shore and the waters beyond. However, the western sea was dangerous to live by for several reasons: one, the storms blown in by the sea were particularly harsh in that region. In addition, Xifang had little to do with trade ー by water, at least ー so the sea held very little interest to them. Their political troubles usually left the other three kingdoms forgetting that they actually controlled the west at all (not that anyone dared to broach on the ancient laws dictating it was so), but because the kingdom itself showed such little concern with their waters, it couldn't be helped. There were fishing villages here and there, for good measure, but they were exceedingly poor, yielding very little in fruitful harvest. There had been more fishing villages in the past, but many had been swept away by the numerous storms that had plagued the western coast for multiple decades. The sea there was called the Sea of Baihu, or the White Sea, for good measure, but it had never really _felt_ like a part of Xifang territory, not to anyone, really.

Knowing that Nan Fang had perhaps the best coast to live at in terms of a peaceful and mundane existence had its charms and appeals, but it didn't do much to assuage him in his ever-growing annoyance at the constant smell of fish and salt that somehow permeated every inch of everything, even when he had walked far away enough from the waters to not see them anymore. Telling himself he would get used to it, he carefully dropped the ground tea leaves into the small clay pot hanging above the fire, the water hot and boiling. Outside, he heard his ward pull out the fishing tools from the small makeshift shed ー it was more like a tall box if anything ー outside, likely to go by the coast for another day of fishing.

However, there were several things he and his charge had come to appreciate of the place (the younger had found admittedly more than he, however), and considering their predicament he supposed being able to even have a roof over their heads with no assassins trying to slit their throats was far more preferable to what their life had previously been like, luxuries and comforts aside. His charge hadn't seemed to mind them much anyway; to him, homey comfort had been something he lacked greatly, and the mere presence of it in their current lifestyle ー which was rounding up to a full year now ー seemed to satisfy him much more than the relief at finally being out of harm's way. They ate simple foods, usually centered around whatever they could catch from the sea, or hunt down. Occasionally he ー by himself, despite his ward's pleadings ー went down to the nearest village to buy vegetables and fruit, as well as stock up on any basic necessities. He always did so swiftly; while not a single citizen of the southern kingdom, especially in a remote little sea town like this, had any reason to be suspicious of him, the nerve-wracking days he and his charge had spent trying to escape their home could not easily be assuaged. In fact, the little regard the townsfolk showed him made him even _more_ on edge; the quiet felt unsettling, like the feeling of being watched. 

Ayumu figured it would take more than a year in some foreign kingdom to make him feel completely safe. Nobutora, on the other hand, seemed completely settled in ー even today he donned the triangular straw hats they had seen some fishermen wearing, happily humming away as he cleaned his rod, carefully inspecting the wood to ensure that it was still smooth, with no splinters or cracks. His charge had immediately taken to the art of fishing; he rather seriously took care of their tools, as cheap as they had been, and always presented his catches with a flourish, whether they be big or small. One time, when they had just been settling in, he had caught a water snake, making Ayumu, who had thought it was a moccasin, panic. After some back and forth arguing, where Nobutora tried to beg his guardian not to kill it, the snake had slipped away, and for a while the job of hunting had been solely left to the blonde.

Nobutora had, on their journey to the south, been more cautious before, but after they had begun settling on the small abandoned house near the shore, with the small fishing village close by, he had begun to settle into their new life nicely. If things remained the way they were now, Ayumu mused, he would likely have to start doing the same; it didn't seem the two of them would have any opportunities to return home any time soon. Not with the way they had been chased, as if they had had multiple targets on their backs. It didn't help that they'd been tricked, either, by someone they had considered their benefactor and somewhat ally, he thought vehemently. But considering that their home had never been big on trust and faith, it was partially his fault for letting them get so abruptly blindsided like this, to the point they'd been driven from their own kingdom.

Down below, near the waters, which were crashing into the rocks in the form of small waves, Nobutora was cheerfully waving his rod at his caretaker, trying to attract his attention. He lifted his own hand in greeting, the other wrapped around a small cup of herbal tea, sending up a small trail of white steam that fogged his eyeglasses when he brought the drink close to his face. The robes of Nan Fang were hard to get used to; they were lighter than the ones he was accustomed to, to fit the warmth of the south. The long sleeves felt like the wings of a moth, and he always felt a bit uneasy when he wore them; they felt as if they would tear easily, and didn't feel protective in the slightest. The shore became cooler at night, too, meaning the thinness of the robes left him feeling a slight chill each morning when he woke up ー an aftereffect of the lingering cold of the hours under the moon. 

He felt a chill this morning, too, but it wasn't just the pangs of a cold night, he knew. When he'd gone into the village, early this morning, he had overheard a few villagers talking in hushed and grave tones. _The king is dead,_ they were whispering, dropped voices urgent and panicked, _he was killed. The capital was attacked. So was the palace._

_Who attacked them?_ someone asked, voice even softer as if asking the question was some tremendous taboo that she had dared to cross. Ayumu had stopped in his search for ripe tomatoes completely, listening in with a well-trained ear. Other villagers around him seemed to be discussing the same topic, and the words _assassin,_ and _killed,_ and such floated up from the mouths of several people outdoors, all business and work forgotten.

_Xifang,_ he heard, and he felt his blood freeze, body temperature dropping several degrees. _The Opal Kingdom?_ he heard someone exclaim in shock. _Are you sure?_ The voices continued. _Well, it's just a rumor, but someone that came back from the capital said they were from Opal. Wouldn't shut up about it, actually._ More chattering. _Are we at war? What will happen to us?_ The whispers increased in fever pitch, everyone's fears coagulating into a dark mass that became a repeated pitch inside his head, even when he felt everyone quieting down around him, chastised by others to return to their work. _What will happen? Are we safe?_

_Are we safe? Are we safe? Are we safe? Are we safe? Are we safe? Are we safe? Are we safe? Are we safe? Are we safe? Are we safe? Are we safe?_

_Nobutora,_ he had thought, clutching the long, plate-shaped basket he held, stocked full of vegetables. _I need to go back, right now._ When he had come back, the young brunette had been cheerfully cleaning out the shelves, stocked with tea leaves. Dust had caught in his curly hair, and the front of his robes were slightly damp from perspiration. He had been working since Ayumu left, the younger had told him proudly, so he had worked up a bit of a sweat. The windows were thrown open, and for once the overpowering smell of the sea felt welcome to the tall blonde, who had wearily wrapped his arms around his charge in a rare show of physical affection, all his pent up fear and anxiety coming undone. Nobutora had looked at him, confused, before laughing genially and taking the basket, carefully setting the vegetables across the low wooden table, bringing in a wooden bucket so they could wash them. Ayumu had set about making tea, and then, at some point, Nobutora had set off for another round of fishing, bringing them to now. As his ward cheerfully threw the line out into the water again and again, his protector sipped his tea, wondering how he would break the news about the rumors that Xifang may or may not have been in Nan Fang, and may or may not have attacked the capital.

"Ayumu!" came the excited shout, and the brunette waved a hand at him cheerfully, "Look! I caught another one! It's kinda big, too!" His voice was sunny and bright, and he marveled at the younger's inherent ability for good cheer and energy. With everything happening to them, what with a year of hiding and trying to settle down after being chased by several people trying to kill them (kill Nobutora, to be more exact), he had felt the stress take its toll on his ability to be even a little more good-natured about things. 

Walking up to his charge, taking care not to spill the tea from the cup in his hand, his gaze traveled out along the coast, taking in the sparkling deep blue of the water and the greenery of the shore. The grass grew well past his knees, and the sand was a brilliant scintillating white, with dark stones absorbing the sun's rays scattered about like the backs of large gray turtles. When he came up next to the younger of the duo, the young man happily procured his catches, all lying dead in a deep straw basket. There were about four in total, all of decent size, with silver bellies covered in light speckles. The brunette happily threw in his fifth catch; with their sizes, Ayumu calculated, it would certainly make for a fulfilling dinner that night of one fish each, and he could sell the remaining three in the village for a fairly good sum. Whenever the younger managed to make several good catches that yielded them profit, he would buy at least one thing in the town that might amuse the brunette: a new book, or a small _taiko_ drum, or a _kendama_ toy. Other times he bought small ornaments to decorate the house with, like colorful paper lanterns to hang around the house or small ceramic ornaments to put on the windowsills and tables; it had been abandoned, but it was well-lit and looked rather nice when properly cleaned and tidied. There were few tears in the oily paper covering the sliding doors, and the beams making up the house weren't in such terrible shape. In fact, judging from its condition, Ayumu surmised that it hadn't been abandoned too long ago ー that, or someone had been keeping up with its maintenance despite its unoccupied state. But he had yet to see anyone approach the house, so he had stuck with his initial theory. 

"Good job," he commented, turning his eyes up from the basket to look at the younger's broad grin. The brunette's cheeks were flushed with excitement, obviously happy to have done something that had brought out praise from the elder. Ayumu's face softened a little in response, before he quickly shook his head, telling himself to focus. "Let's take it back to the house," he said crisply, picking up the basket using both his hands, handing the younger his empty cup to hold, "You start cooking the fish. I'll take the rest to the port and see how much I can fetch for these," He frowned a bit, before sternly adding, "Just don't burn them." He gestured with his chin in the direction of the small fishing village, where the port was barely visible. It was a considerable trek, one that he avoided doing too often, but fresh catches always guaranteed a good sum. One of the disadvantages of occupying an abandoned house and trying to stay as incognito as possible was that a lot of the daily necessities used by most of the other villagers were hardly available there. There was a small bathing house, fresh water, and a room to sleep, but there was also little in the way of preservatives, especially during the warmer time of the year. In the winter, the two of them had used the occasional snow, packing it around any excess fish or meat, sometimes using cool water as a substitute. It was harder to preserve their catches for long periods of time around this part of the year; even if they could rely on the cool water to keep their meat fresh, it wasn't for a terribly long time to begin with. A year of living like this had taught them much in the ways of common village life, but they were still several years young compared to... well, pretty much everyone in the nearby village. It was a small hassle, but not so great it prevented them from coping.

Nobutora, unaware of the many thoughts and worries constantly running Ayumu ragged, made a happy noise of excitement when he was instructed to start cooking the fish. "Yes!" he grinned, striking a victory pose, "Don't worry, Ayumu, I've got this! I'll show you that I've been practicing my cooking, just like I've been telling you." He happily gathered his fishing tools, of which they owned few, and Ayumu heaved the basket up. As they made their way back towards the house, he said, "I don't doubt that you've been _practicing_ cooking, but practicing and knowing how are two different things, I'm afraid." The younger made a small noise of affront, pouting like an upset child.

"I've been practicing for a year," was the whining protest, "And I'm pretty sure that's enough time for anyone to get good at something, if they practice daily."

"If by 'practice daily' you mean try and set the kitchen on fire on a daily basis, then I suppose you have a point." he replied sardonically, and the younger gave a childish huff of mock anger, waving one end of his fishing rod around in small motions, as if he were drawing pictures in the air. 

Waving the teacup in Ayumu's face, the brunette said in a purposely cross tone, "Well, I got _better_ at cooking, and I'll cook that fish so well it'll make your taste buds cry. You'll see!" He began to jog up to the house, bounding the remaining steps to the front door, sticking his tongue out at his guardian before disappearing inside. The small clattering that could be heard a few moments later indicated he was putting his tools away, and soon his humming could be heard from the place where their cookware was. Ayumu entered the house much more slowly, slipping off the wooden sandals he had been wearing and replacing them with worn old slippers which he had pawned off at some old shop. Nobutora was wearing a similar pair, and they made small flapping noises as he rushed over to the older, grabbing two fish from the basket before rushing back to the fire pit, where a small flame was already growing. Carefully placing a black, grid-like contraption (another intrepid Nan Fang device, he thought with a small hint of wonder) over the pit, he carefully laid out the two fish, watching the flame steadily grow. The cup had been placed on the table, and he gently put it into the bucket that they reserved for filthy dishware ー they took turns using the old well near the house, between them and the coast, to wash dishes and clothes; despite the lack of human maintenance on the place, the water in the well was still clean, and if that ever went sour, the forest nearby offered an abundance in clear streams. According to some of the fishermen, there was even a lake in the forest, a large one, with beautiful, pure water, but it would be quite the strenuous effort to utilize the water there from their location every single day. 

After closing the lid of the basket, he carefully strapped it to his back. As per usual (although it was more habit at this point), he slipped a thin dagger into his robes, concealed from prying eyes and hard to notice, but easy to pull out if things ever got dangerous. In the corner of the house lay his _podao_ spear, glinting dully, sharp and silently waiting to be used. Fighting with a spear hadn't been very common; the weapon's unwieldiness made for its lack of popularity in the face of the many different types of swords one could wield. However, he rather liked the spear, even if it had taken several years of practice before he could use the thing in battle properly. 

Nobutora's weapon was also that of a spear: a _naginata._ The pole was ridiculously long, and at first Ayumu had wondered _why_ he had chosen such a weapon in the first place. When he had asked, Nobutora had proudly proclaimed that he had picked the spear at random; he had wanted to fight like Ayumu, so he had chosen the same weapon. "It'll be easier for us to train together if we're using the same thing, won't it?" At the time, he had simply sighed and called him an idiot, but even now he found the younger's sentiment rather heartwarming, even if he never said so out loud. His _naginata_ was also resting, but, whether by conscious decision or reflex, Nobutora always angled himself to be near the weapon when he was alone, and usually never left that position until his guardian returned. Even now, as he focused on the fish over the flame, his body was still poised near the weapon, ready to grab it in case of danger, even after a year of peace and quiet. It was the sole proof, he realized, that his ward was perfectly aware, even now, that they were runaways, at risk of losing their lives with one wrong move.

"Alright," he said, shouldering the basket, "I'm going now. Be careful on your own." 

"I know," Nobutora didn't take his eyes off the fish, brow scrunched in concentration. A bead of sweat was rolling down his face, likely the result of being so close to the flame, which had grown to a considerably impressive size. "Don't worry, I'll be fine." Ayumu only nodded in response, changing from slippers to wooden sandals yet again, the thin socks rubbing against the felt straps around the toes. Behind him, the faint smells of cooking fish began to waft up, and he shut the wooden door behind him silently.

It was only after he had reached the town that he realized that he had forgotten to tell Nobutora about Xifang, and resolved to do so when he returned.

* * *

When Ayumu returned it was just beginning to turn dark, and Nobutora had already set out the fish onto white ceramic plates, with the vegetables that his guardian had bought that morning cut neatly and placed next to the fish. The smells of fish oil and leftover smoke from the fire filled the room, accompanied by the sounds of only their chopsticks clinking against the plates, with occasional conversation in between. In his opinion, he had done a rather splendid job with the fish ー he hadn't let the fire get out of control, nor had he burned the meal. Not a single finger had been cut when he had sliced the vegetables, and he hadn't needed to refill the bucket of water because of a spill. Considering he had never lived in a village, nor experienced a common lifestyle, he felt the results of his efforts after a year of trial and error had proved fruitful, and when Ayumu muttered, "This is actually pretty good," he felt happy enough to float into the air. For a while they sat and ate in comfortable silence, but the entire time he could feel some sort of unease radiating off of his longtime companion, and he waited patiently for the blonde to start (if he planned to) speaking.

Nobutora knew that his friend thought of him as rather childish ー hopeless at times ー but still someone he could trust to deal with the truth, unfiltered. So when he hesitated like this, it usually meant something big and important was about to come up. The best thing to do at times like this, he had learned, was to act as natural and unbothered as possible; he couldn't push his friend to speak, and he didn't want to anyway, so he found that acting as he always had until the older of the two felt ready to speak was the best course of action to take. He waited, taking bites of fish and cabbage, washing it down with the herbal tea Ayumu had put on the stove shortly after he had returned. The exotic fragrance of the tea reminded him of the fortune teller's tent he had visited as a child, where an elderly woman had been quietly offering her divination services. When Nobutora had said he wanted to try, however, he had been dragged away, leaving only a whiff of some powerful, soothing fragrance that made his head slightly sleepy. 

Outside, he could hear the gentle, continuous roar of the waves as they crashed into the shore. An owl gave a long and lonely cry, signaling that the night had truly begun, and he glanced out the windows to see the last of the pale remains of the orange evening sky slowly fading into a deep purple, which lapsed into an even darker blue, so deep it was practically black. Everywhere he went, he mused, on the continent, the sky seemed to change; at this time, he could imagine the north was already steadily turning into a black deeper than the depths of a cave, and in the west he could imagine the full view of the sun setting. As these background noises and sights coagulated into a chorus that sang the end of the day, Ayumu opened his mouth and with some trepidation, murmured, "I was in the village this morning, when I heard a rumor from some of the townsfolk." His chopsticks had stopped moving; most of his fish was gone, as were some of the vegetables, but his hands appeared to have stopped as if in direct response to him opening his mouth to talk.

"A rumor?" he asked, casually, knowing that such things were normally of little consequence to his much more mature friend; if a rumor, which the blonde rarely paid much mind to, was causing him this much agitation, then it must have been a rather serious one ー something he couldn't afford to ignore.

Ayumu heaved a weary sigh, loaded with exhaustion and worry, "Nan Fang's capital was attacked ー more specifically, the palace. Almost a week or so ago, they say. The king was... killed in the onslaught, they said."

Nobutora felt a lump form in his throat, a combination of both shock and dread. "Attacked?" he whispered, half in disbelief, "Nan Fang? You're kidding."

His guardian shrugged, "I wish I was, but I'm not. And I highly doubt there would be any false rumors about dead kings of the very territory said gossipers are currently occupying. No," he frowned and set his chopsticks down, producing a rather large noise of wood on ceramic which echoed almost eerily in their silent home, "That wasn't the rumor; it was the truth. The rumor I heard was that it was," He swallowed here, rather nervously, pushing up his glasses. They glinted in the dim light of the oil lamp hanging above them, and for a second Nobutora couldn't see the other's eyes. "Don't panic, alright? Well, they're saying it was Opal's doing. Xifang, in other words."

He didn't realize he had dropped his own chopsticks until they made a large clink of their own, wood crashing into the creamy colored dishware sitting in front of him, food still not yet all gone. The wooden utensils proceeded to roll off onto the floor, making rather pathetic clattering noises as they hit the hard ground. His older friend wasn't looking at his eyes; they were fixed on the almost empty plate in front of him, as if afraid that if he looked into his fellow escapee's own they would see reflected not themselves or the house they were currently occupying, but the nerve-wracking and frightful days spent as they tried to escape what they had thought had been the most beautiful place in the universe and had actually turned out to be a tiger's den of plots and blood and ambitions. Betrayals and bloodshed had chased them down for almost two whole months, rather insistently, never seeming to let up on the chase as they desperately tried to make it out of the kingdom on foot. With no magic aiding them and nothing but their weapons, they hadn't managed to shake off their pursuers until they had crossed far, _far_ over the southwestern border ー even when they had first made it to the Crimson side, their hunters hadn't let that stop them. 

Their escape from Xifang had been harrowing, if he were only permitted to use one word to describe it. If he had been allowed several, he would've added a bunch of similar words, as well as a few choice selections to adequately describe his mental state during the whole thing ー he had physically _felt_ his emotional strength weaken several times, half-tempted to give up on the whole ordeal and turn himself in. The only thing that had kept him going was not the knowledge that he very well had the chance of being executed if he had been caught, but the possibility that Ayumu would be punished ー possibly executed ー for being an accomplice. Until they had reached the southern coast of the continent and settled in the Crimson Kingdom, a peaceful and pursuit-free existence had seemed like a mere pipe dream to the two. 

"Xifang," he said slowly, "Here? In Nan Fang? Are you sure?" He felt a deep-set sense of panic grip his throat, and he grabbed it with his own two hands, as if by physically holding his neck he could counteract the internal pain he felt in that region as a result of his panic. Immediately, Ayumu had flown to his side, tenderly rubbing his back in soothing motions, trying to calm the younger. For a while the house was only full of the sounds of the brunette's ragged breathing and the repetitive crashing of the waves. 

"Hey, it's just a rumor," his companion gave him a small smile, the kind, soft one that Nobutora had come to depend on, "It might not be Xifang, and even if it _was_ them, it was all the way in the capital. That's several days worth of a hike from here. We're safe." He rubbed the younger's back for a little longer, and the brunette felt his breathing calm down, the tension in his body ease. He slowly released his hands from his throat, but Ayumu stayed near him, ready to continue soothing him if the panic set in once more.

"They have magic, remember?" He tried to keep his voice neutral, but the shudder in it betrayed his fear and unease, and the blonde clasped his hand tight, anchoring him to the present, not the horrors of the past. It was all he could do to try and not remember the large flashes of magic, the blazing fires and the cutting winds, the sounds of metal on metal as everyone under the same roof began to fight one another, with no hint as to who was friend and who was foe in sight. Ayumu had dragged him away from the fighting then, hands clasped tightly around his own as he guided the other through dark corners and back alleys, out of sight of the buildings towards the wilderness. From that day on, his protector's hands had served as the anchor to which he grounded himself, keeping him from breaking down into a mental blackout. "They can teleport. Remember that really stoic guy, his right hand? Number two? I forget..." He laughed weakly, trying to ease the tension in himself too.

"Juukiya," was the other's calm reply, "I remember him; he's a skilled mage, like you said. But what business would he, or any of those other jerks have down here?" Nobutora unwittingly laughed at the childish jab aimed at some of the most feared men in Xifang; leave it to his friend to be able to throw insults about them casually. "We're all the way down south, near the ocean, and Xifang has _no_ business being anywhere here. There's nothing for them; it would be a waste of _jiéshi_ and time." He felt the other's palm gently rest itself on his head, before moving up and down in small patting motions. "Don't worry, Nobutora ー they won't come down here. And besides, they're probably long gone by now; after all, if it really _was_ them that caused the king's death, then Nan Fang would be out for their blood ー no matter how peaceful they're known to be, they wouldn't take the death of their monarch lying down."

Nobutora could only nod in response ー it was the best he could manage at the moment. Ayumu gave his hand a comforting squeeze, before picking up the chopsticks he had dropped, standing up to rinse them in the bucket of water they had collected earlier that day. After the utensils had found their way back into his hands, he tried to turn his attention back to the meal; the fish wasn't yet completely cold, albeit lacking in the earlier coziness of warm food, and he silently made his way through the fresh vegetables from the port town, watching Ayumu silently scrub his own plates in the water with intense concentration, his eyes also glinting with the same resolve as his ward to try and focus on their current lifestyle, not let the rumors of the one place they feared above all else ー more than the convergence point itself, even ー interfere with their peace of mind. If it was true, then they would have to worry about the possibility of a war (which meant contact with Xifang, one way or the other), and if it was not, then they could continue their lives in peace (and in mourning for the lost king of the land that had, without realizing it, graciously taken the two refugees in without a hitch). Nobutora prayed it was the latter as he stared into the blank space that was his now-empty plate, trying to fight back the horrible suspicion growing in the back of his mind that it was very well the former, and for more reasons than both he and Ayumu dared to voice aloud. He didn't want to admit it, but the idea of Xifang going after Nan Fang made more sense than it was supposed to ー under normal circumstances, it wouldn't have made any sense at all, but both of them knew that Xifang's current state had been a herald to the possibility. 

A little over a year ago, the two of them had been in Xifang. They had borne witness to the rise in power of someone who had not been the current leader of the fractured kingdom, and they had watched as somehow, a problem with _jiéshi_ had somehow escalated to the involvement of another kingdom, and several things happening under everyone's noses. By the time they had both come to be somewhat suspicious of it, things had escalated beyond their control, and what was once a somewhat divided yet orderly (in the loosest sense of the word) system had become a storm of infighting and position-stealing that had left everything in shambles. It had been a year, so they didn't know who was in charge _now,_ but they definitely knew who had been in charge when they had escaped ー knew because _he_ had been the one to orchestrate the movements of their own kingdom without anyone fully noticing until it was too late, and had been the one who ordered their captures. They knew because he _terrified_ them, haunted their minds and made them fear for their safety every waking hour, and they prayed that no matter what, he was no longer in power, even if someone with far less experience or charisma now had hold over the throne. 

"But," he said softly, as if they had been in conversation the whole time, "I can't say I'm completely shocked they attacked Nan Fang, but... why? I can only fathom a few guesses, but timing-wise, isn't it a little... off?"

"Why?" Ayumu frowned, his eyes a little confused behind the frames of his glasses. They had slid down as he scrubbed his plates, and Nobutora brought his over to do his own, shaking away the older's proffered hand, which he knew still felt duty-bound to take care of such mundane chores for him when he was plenty capable of doing them himself. "Timing-wise, it had quite the impact; it was the prince's coming-of-age ceremony, and if they wanted to take away the kingdom's morale, then it was the perfect event to do so. Even more so to assassinate a royal family member." He snatched the plate and chopsticks from the brunette, ignoring his protests.

Sighing, Nobutora leaned against the wall; his earlier panic was still there, but the sudden sense of curiosity was stronger, taking away some of the apprehension he felt whenever he discussed Xifang. He tilted his head and inquired, half to himself, "Was that really all there was to it...? I know Dongfang is off the table considering we _somehow_ wound up allied to them, but Beifang was a liable option too, right? After all, **if it had just been a problem with the _jiéshi_ ****then** **I would understand why they targeted the Crimson Kingdom, but how would they know if what they were really looking for wasn't somewhere else?** " He stared at the opposite wall absentmindedly. "It could've been anywhere else. Escaped to Beifang, or hidden even in Dongfang. It wasn't in Xifang, that was for sure, but that didn't immediately narrow their options down to Nan Fang, did it?" He smiled a little, the expression self-deprecating and sad. Ayumu glanced at him from the corner of his eyes but remained silent, letting the brunette continue to speak, even as his voice hardened as he did so. "Unless things changed when we left. They could've, I know, but then that... that feels _wrong._ No one knew where the thing was for _years,_ and the two of us leave for about a year and then some, and all of a sudden they've narrowed it down to this kingdom?"

"You're assuming things," came the other's calming voice, trying to take away some of his agitation, "That's on the assumption it's here in the first place." He stood up, wiping his hands on a small towel, the sleeves of his robes rustling with the movement. For a moment he disappeared around the corner of the house, slipping outside with the bucket full of sudsy water in hand, and Nobutora heard the sounds of water being poured onto the grass. When he reappeared, he continued, "It's not so simple, Nobutora. The _jiéshi_ has always been the primary problem; their _search_ for this... thing, although I hesitate to call it that, came after. So whether there was an ulterior motive to 'visiting' Nan Fang, we really can't say for sure until we have all the facts." 

"But what if?" he retorted, trying to keep his voice level, fighting back the ever-growing urgency creeping into his mind, "I don't even know half the details with what those guys were plotting, but I know for sure that if they find whatever it is they're looking for ー whether they're still calling the shots in Xifang or not ー it isn't going to end well for anyone. Remember what we found out? They're not _supposed_ to try and get their hands on the... 'thing', and if they do and everything goes as it's actually supposed to then no one wins. I think." He paused for a moment, hesitation and unease battling the confidence he had had in his earlier urgency. "Right?"

Ayumu sighed, taking his glasses off for a second to rub the space between his eyes tiredly, "This is what I meant by making assumptions... What do you suggest we do, then? We can't very well stroll out and confront Xifang ourselves; the last time we tried to 'talk' to them it went about as well as fishing with a broken twig would go. Leaving the south is out of the question, Nobutora. We'd be walking straight into hell."

Biting his lip, he fixed his gaze on the floor, trying not to jump into protest. He knew the other was technically right ー it would do them no favors if Xifang was still after their necks ー but it didn't feel _right_ to just ignore the problem, not when they both knew there was a bigger issue behind it then anyone else likely could imagine. He could pray that someone caught on fast enough, but considering a whole kingdom (now two, if Dongfang was truly in on the plot) had been ensnared by a possibility that was only half-true, then it felt extremely doubtful. The two of them, even, didn't have all the facts; all they knew was that Xifang's "experiments" to recover their declining magic source, as well as the so-called "ritual" they wished to undergo to further that, wasn't all that it seemed to be ー it wasn't a hoax, but neither was it the image that the ones carrying it out envisioned as a result. 

All he knew for sure was that anything that had a single thing to do with the convergence point, quite possibly the most dangerous place on the whole eastern continent _including_ the Untouched North. The center of the continent, he knew, was more scary than the unexplored, dangerous lands of the northern part of the continent, or the endless spiraling caves of the west, or anywhere else. Everything reeked of _natural_ dangers, some a little less real than others. The convergence point radiated all sorts of "wrong", from the ill effects on people's minds it had to the rumors circulating about its center, where no one could possibly _hope_ to enter. And Xifang wanted something from that very place, where no one was allowed to step foot lest they risk causing a war.

_Unless..._ The thought came to him, unbidden, and he snapped his head up to look his longtime companion dead in the eyes. The abrupt movement caused the other to start, shoulders jumping a fraction of a centimetre, before his gaze regained their natural state of calm.

"What if we didn't have to leave the south?" he asked, words tumbling out of his mouth in his rush to voice his sudden thoughts, "What if we went to Nan Fang's capital and told _them_ instead about what's going on? We can warn them, tell them what we know, and then maybe it'll help them deal with this problem?" He leaned his body forward in excitement, all prior terror at the mere mention of Xifang's name temporarily forgotten. Why hadn't he thought of this before? They were both sitting in a kingdom that was most definitely equipped to help them. 

Ayumu, however, didn't seem particularly enthused by his idea. He shook his head and responded coldly, "That would be under the assumption that it actually _was_ Xifang that attacked them, for starters, in case you forgot."

"Even if it wasn't them, they wouldn't be able to ignore a threat as large as this!" he argued, not willing to give an inch to the other. Just this once, he was certain he was right.

"And how would we be able to prove it?" came the cool retort, "We would have to tell them that we are escapees from Xifang, and how trustworthy would that make us in their eyes? We have no evidence of the shady dealings our kingdom is consorting with, and _if_ it wasn't Xifang who attacked Nan Fang, then I imagine the south would be more concerned with finding the actual culprits than dealing with what they would consider our delusion fantasies." The bespectacled blonde walked up to the oil lamps, gently turning the knob on the side at the bottom, and the flames within each began to get smaller and smaller, until the inside of the room no longer glowed with a cozy orange aura, but instead was soon cocooned in the familiar blackness of the night. Nobutora, not satisfied with the other's reasoning, followed him around as he did so, desperately trying to think of a way to convince his friend.

"But what _if?_ " he tried again, desperate, "If they know, then they might consider it a threat that would come for them sometime in the future. So wouldn't it actually be a good thing to just tell them, regardless of whether Xifang has made a move on Nan Fang or not? I don't wanna risk those guys coming to the south themselves, if they haven't already ー we would _definitely_ have nowhere to go if that happened." He saw Ayumu's shoulders twitch again at that, and he gave one last final push. " _Please,_ Ayumu; if there's a chance we can help these guys _and_ set things right in our kingdom, then I want to do it. I couldn't manage to do anything back then and got us both chased out for it, and this feels like another opportunity to set things right. You want to save those guys as much as I do, and you know it." He clasped his hand around the other's arm, trying to make his friend turn around and face him. "I want to do something right, for once, not run around worrying about just myself like I always did. I finally thought I had made friends, but then everything got screwed over, and I couldn't even say goodbye before I had to flee." At this he gave a self-deprecating little chuckle, which was cut off with the feeling of his guardian's own fingers wrapped around his own, over the hand that was grabbing onto the other's arm.

Ayumu heaved an enormous, resigned sigh, "Actually, my top priority is keeping _you_ safe, not playing hero... but you have a point. Unfortunately." His friend turned around to face him, his expression soft and full of exasperation and fondness. "If this place gets attacked, then there will be no safe places for us to hide... so I'll go along with what you say. But," he added, when Nobutora opened his mouth to express his thanks, face lightening up, "If things feel too dangerous, I'm taking you out of there. Do you understand? I am not risking your life, not for the sake of this entire kingdom if it comes down to it."

Nobutora felt his mouth stretching into an enormous grin, his eyes crinkling at the corners. "I knew I could count on you, Ayumu." 

"Of course you can," his friend laughed in exaggerated tones of haughtiness, "After all, I am your guardian. I'll always have your back."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New characters make an appearance, and the mysterious dialogue from a few chapters prior steadily draws to a close. I promised myself a fight scene sooner or later, and hopefully if the pacing goes right, there should be one a few chapters ahead. Hopefully. 
> 
> On a more cheerful and less writing-related note, I have discovered the joys of making book coverings. Like those little paper covers they give you in Japanese bookstores? I love them, but they rip and shred after many years of repeated use (and adjusting the folds to fit the book I'm reading), so I started looking for those slightly tough colored papers (they smooth, kinda hard types) and began making colorful little book covers. It's simple, but makes for a nice hobby to kill time. Maybe I can go a little creative when I get my hands on more materials...
> 
> Whiiiiich I'm sure you all didn't want to hear much about anyway, so I'll cut off here. I tend to ramble when I speak and it seems the habit carries into my typing.... 
> 
> I hope to see you in the next chapter, and if you're reading this please know that you have blessed my day enormously, and I hope wonderful things happen to you all.


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Typed half of this at 1AM in the morning purely because it was too hot during the day to write and my AC was acting slowly this week. It's alright now. I gave it lots of praise for doing God's work and keeping me from melting into a puddle, and it seems to have regained the motivation to start working properly. Good air conditioner. I'll give you a thorough dusting tomorrow, I promise. 
> 
> OK, enough screwing around. Here's to another chapter. If you're wondering about the pacing or how often I upload chapters, it's because I want to get to the climax (and a good three-fourths of this story) before summer ends, because once fall hits I will be taking online courses, which will definitely eat up a majority of my time (which means less updates and chances to write). So yeah. Wanna avoid that.

_It took him a while before he did, but Riku noticed that Koki had a tendency to space out sometimes. It wasn't so off-putting that it became a source of serious concern, but it always happened out of the blue, with no warning. He could be doing anything, or nothing at all, when his eyes would become unfocused, looking at_ something _that wasn't there. But it would only last for a fraction of a second, so soon that he could never find the right time to point it out. Every time he thought to, the other would be back to normal, nothing out of the ordinary, and he began to wonder if it was him who was acting funny, seeing things that weren't happening in reality. But after he decided to confide in his findings to Kaiji ー after some considerable internal debate ー the latter confirmed he had been noticing the same phenomenon, but had been too unsure of it to delve into it further. One time they tried to ask Koki outright if he ever found himself spacing out, knowing it was likely a rather silly question, and, as they expected, the red-haired boy only gave them a wide-eyed look of utter confusion. This cycle repeated itself for several years until the two of them came to accept it as a possible result of him being an amnesiac, although their gut instincts whispered this was not the case._

_For all their concerns, however, the three of them grew up together rather normally, and Koki had completely adjusted to their lifestyles a year or so after living with them. He had his own set of odd quirks, but Riku decided to shelve that as just another part of being a person ー everyone had their own little oddities that set them apart from others. He had decided to ー against his parents' wishes ー dye the fringe of his ebony black hair blue; Kaiji was fixated on cats to an abnormal degree (he was pretty sure he had caught him talking to strays on more than one occasion); Koki sometimes framed out from reality and became detached. It was normal. It was okay._

_Around the time their heights had stopped growing at similar paces, with himself shooting up rather high and Kaiji following, he began to notice that the "fraction of a second" moments of blankness Koki displayed had lengthened in time, although it was almost imperceptible to anyone who wasn't looking. They weren't_ longer _per say, but they definitely differed somewhat from the episodes in the past. They couldn't be played as tricks of the eyes anymore, that was for sure. The prolonged episodes worried him; if his amnesia was starting to take its toll on him mentally, then perhaps they should've tried more healers in the past, as expensive as that would have been._

_(Nevermind that, after several extensive checks on the boy's skull, there had been no evidence of fractures or past injuries jarring enough to wipe a person's entire memory clean. Sometimes Riku's panics left him leaving out these tiny important pieces of information.)_

_Then one night, rather suddenly and with no forewarning, his friend disappeared. And by "disappeared", he meant "the door had been left open, his shoes were gone, and his bed was cold" disappeared. In his panic, he ran around the entire house, praying that the open door and the missing shoes could be attributed to anything else: strays from outdoors, stray winds, shoe thieves. Not a missing friend. His desperate search up and down the steps eventually woke up Kaiji, who he explained the situation to half in tears. The blonde's face had gone frighteningly serious, and without a single word to his friend he dashed out the door, leaving the raven-haired boy to follow him hurriedly, face messed up by his teary eyes and running nose. He didn't think he'd ever cried this much before, not even when one of the chicks he had been helping a local farmer raise in his old village had died, unable to withstand the odd bout of cold weather that had blown in that year, despite it being the warmer time of year. His panic now was tantamount to sheer terror; in his head, he couldn't shake the image that if he continued down the path of their neighborhood, he would find the redhead lying dead, just as he had seen the chick curled over, cold and surrounded by its confused siblings and mourning mother._

_"There," he heard Kaiji say, voice hard, making his emotions difficult to read, "Up ahead." His gaze followed the blonde's long index finger, pointed down a long and dark alley that opened into another street of the town. About halfway through, huddled in the dark, sat a lone shape, small and still, and for a second Riku wondered_ how _his friend had managed to identify it as Koki, until he saw that a small shaft of light from a still bright window over their heads had caught on the still figure, revealing a head of hair that glinted a deep, dark red._

_"Koki," he almost breathed the name, rushing up to the smaller boy, "What are you **doing**?! Why are you here? Why did you come out here? Are you okay?" He shook the unresponsive redhead's shoulders, Kaiji standing behind him, as still as the small stone statue sitting in front of the Hiura's house. _

_The redhead blinked, slow, staring at him with impassive eyes. No matter how much he shook him, the other didn't respond. "Koki," he whispered, trying to keep his voice gentle and calm, "Koki? Are you okay? It's me, Riku." No response._

_All of a sudden, he felt a rough force shove him aside, and he fell on his arm rather unceremoniously. Before he could raise an indignant protest, however, Kaiji had grabbed Koki by the front, forcefully pulling him up to the blonde's face until their noses were only an inch apart._

_"Kaiji, waitー" he began, cutting off when he finally caught a full glimpse of his childhood friend's face._

_He was crying. Kaiji, his aloof, relaxed, somewhat lazy, in a sense, friend, was crying. His eyes were rimmed red, and there were tears gathering in the corners, like raindrops on the edge of a leaf, wavering, ready to slide off by the pull of gravity to the ground below._

_Seeing that, he couldn't say a single thing._

_They stood there in silence, the three of them, when suddenly Koki's head gave a little jolt, before properly lifting up until his eyes were level with Kaiji's own. The motion was reminiscent of one who had suddenly been jolted awake rudely from a peaceful sleep; an out-of-place motion at odds with the sudden heaviness of the air around them. Koki blinked several times, his lashes gently sweeping down each time, and his blank eyes slowly regained their normal shine, wide and impossibly deep. His earring, a memento of a past they didn't know and the wearer didn't remember, caught the weak light streaming through closed curtains a story above them, glinting a soft rose gold color._

_"Kaiji?" The redhead tilted his head to the side, tone confused. His voice was slightly bleary, as if he had just been asleep a few moments earlier. "What's wrong? Why are you crying?"_

_"Shut up, dumbass," came the reply in a voice that broke as it spoke, "It's your fault."_

* * *

"Do you need help with that?"

Kanade whirled around at the voice, and the papers in his hand fluttered to the floor at the startled action. The speaker had caught him completely off guard ー he was standing in his father's study, trying to sort through some of the late monarch's last papers, trying to determine if there was anything in there that needed his immediate attention, or, better yet, something that would serve as a clue, to guide them in some direction. So far, he had found nothing.

"Takato-san," He looked up at the owner's voice, trying to hide his earlier surprise with a smile. "What are you doing here?"

The older man shrugged, his wide shoulders moving up and down with the motion. Kanade marveled that anyone could grow to be so _tall;_ he himself, without exaggeration, had a rather impressive height compared to others, but Takato was a full head taller than he. Everything about the man radiated an intense, all-encompassing energy; it wasn't a bad feeling, although that left him wondering how on earth his little brother, who still stared at some of the older members with a slightly suspicious air, had come to be his almost polar opposite. He said "almost", because when he saw them bantering with one another over seemingly silly topics, the heartwarming scene did reinforce their familial bond's image in his mind. "Same as you," came the reply, in a loud voice that seemed a little out of place for the quiet and imposing air of the king's study, "Trying to sniff up some final clues. If Kanon's right about the whole 'we might need to get involved with the convergence point' thing then... I kinda figured it would be best to look a little more, y'know? Maybe find something that upends that idea, so we don't have to risk upsetting a musty old ancient war and starting some kinda war or something." The older man shot him a cheerful grin, and Kanade felt his earlier tension loosen up in response, the tenseness of his shoulders slowly coming undone. Takato had that sort of effect, he marveled, on almost anyone here; he seemed to, unintentionally, if he was reading the other right, know just what to say that would take away some of the heaviness in the air, without it being insensitive or making light of the situation. It was a saving grace, he mused ー while it was good to have one-track minded and serious people working together to solve a problem as quickly as possible, it was equally as important to have someone who could keep everyone from keeling over from pressure and stress. Takato was always making sure that everyone got proper rest, and he often took over anyone's shift in his free time to allow the other some rest. Which left Kanade wondering when the tall man would decide to try and rest himself, but considering he had rather cheerfully gone down to the capital and purchased some of the bread he had recommended him offhandedly one day, it seemed the older was finding his own ways to enjoy his time off.

Kanade gave a light laugh of his own, but it was hard to muster enough cheer behind it. "I'm afraid to say that it would be a waste of your time," he gave a half-hearted chuckle, "I've searched this entire room thrice now; there is nothing here that would prove useful. Not at the moment, anyway." He bent down to pick up the fallen papers and Takato, who had been wandering around the study staring at the walls, came over and began to help gather them. Mouthing his thanks, he shuffled them together neatly before returning them to their original spot on the desk. The entire time he felt the other's eyes on him, but kept silent, waiting for the other to speak. Takato didn't strike him as the type of person who silently pressured the other to speak up first, prompting them to start discussing what it was they wanted to say. If he wanted to say something he said it, and if he gave it some thought it was a topic that was hard to broach. Patiently waiting for the other to start speaking, he drew the tea cart which he had had Gen bring in earlier closer, gesturing with his hands for the other to sit at the low glass and wood table that his father kept in the study for guests. They both sat on the cushions that served as seating ー Kanade with his legs properly folded under him, and Takato in a languid position that would've had Seiichiro scolding him for its uncouth appearance or Gen trying to stab him for its apparent lack of respect. 

He didn't mind, however. The recent arrival of new guests ー none who seemed all that cowed by status or proper etiquette ー felt new and refreshing, and had they not been in the midst of a crisis that could affect the future and balance of the continent, he would've been grateful at the chance to make more friends. Seiichiro and Gen, too, he reckoned, needed to make more relationships outside of the ones being with him offered; there were more opportunities to make friends than one realized, and it was best to always seize the moment. He didn't really show it much, but Kanade desired to know more about the different types of relationships there were in life, and making more friends was one of them. He and his two friends had been barred off from a number of different types of people, and his desire to get to know them clashed with the teachings he had been trained to follow in accordance with proper royalty.

"Really?" Takato threw back his head with an exaggerated groan. "Well if you say so... guess there really is nothing here then." Splaying out his top half over the low table, he mumbled in falsely bitter tones, "Man, would've helped if your dad had left some kinda hint or something in case he ever needed backup and couldn't call for it himself. Like a secret message or a hidden compartment?" The words sounded like complaints, but there was a note of genial humor behind them that showed the other was only trying to lighten the mood. "I don't read a lot, but I remember when I was a kid my mom used to read all these adventure stories to us, and there was always some part in the book where the hero discovers a magic weapon or ancient map after unlocking some secret door or weird code. Would be neat if we found one of those two, don't you think?"

Kanade laughed at that, "That _would_ be rather interesting, wouldn't it? To have some hidden or magical door pop up in the palace, with answers to questions that seem to pile up on one another with every growing moment." With a practiced hand, he tilted the tea pot over their cups, steam rising in white puffs like clouds, a sweet, fruit-like smell infusing itself into the air. After some trepidation, unsure how to proceed, he asked, "Do you like adventure stories?"

Takato grinned, taking the proffered cup and wrapping both his hands around it, stealing its warmth. "Yeah, I love 'em. I wasn't kidding when I said I don't read a lot; I was never the bookworm of the family, that was for sure. Ryu studied more diligently than I did, and I think both of our younger siblings are following his example more than mine. But," He paused to take a small, hesitant sip of the tea, which was still piping hot, steam rising up around his face. With a yelp at the heat of the still scalding liquid, he moved the cup away from his mouth, continuing, "Fairy tales and adventures were my favorite thing. I always got excited hearing 'bout how some mighty hero moved boulders blocking a waterfall, or rode on the back of a ferocious dragon to save their kingdom from a storm, or went up against an army to save the village of the person they loved." He scratched his nose, abashed, and offered Kanade an embarrassed smile. "I used to run around pretending to be a hero myself. I protected the family well from a chicken siege, and I chased down an evil cat monster who had stolen fish from the only fishery in our town. When Ryu started to walk around himself, he became my sidekick, and we went around playing at legendary warriors, protecting our little village from 'evil'." Here he made little air quotes with his hands, and Kanade couldn't stop himself from laughing in delight at the older's recollections. Takato tilted his head, looking rather pleased with himself at making Kanade laugh, before asking, "Did you do stuff like that as a kid? Actually, did _you_ like adventure tales and stuff?" He leaned forward, eyes shining, as if somehow the prospect of knowing he may share a common interest with the younger was a source of great excitement and joy.

"Well," Kanade hesitated for a while before answering, "I _did_ love tales of grand adventures and heroism. I was more for the stories of exploration rather than heroism, however." He laughed a little, recollections flashing through his mind as he pulled them up, spreading the tales before Takato like rolls of silk. "When I was younger, my mother often took me on small trips to the capital, or the wilderness surrounding it. We would find old shrines and arches, abandoned and disused, or discover small ponds and caves, although we never went too close." Smiling wistfully, he blew softly on the surface of his tea, before bringing the rim of the cup to his mouth. After taking a small sip, he continued, "After she passed away, I couldn't bring myself to go on those small ventures as I had in the past. I used to love sneaking out of the palace, pretending the tallest tree was actually an old, abandoned palace from hundreds of years ago, with winding halls and weathering towers, and I would imagine myself an intrepid explorer, ready to brave the unknown." The scent of the tea, something like a cross between citrus and herb, wafted around him, and he stared into his cup at the brightly colored liquid. "One time, shortly after my mother fell ill and couldn't walk around anymore, I tried to go on an adventure far from the palace on my own. I snuck out, went down to the capital, and had decided to explore the forest further beyond. Seiichiro, who'd always been afraid to go on my smaller excursions closer to the palace, chased after me. He wouldn't leave no matter how many times I told him this was a 'solo expedition', and he stuck to me faithfully, insisting that he would come with me no matter what. Even though," he chuckled, "He was too nervous to join me on my smaller adventures. We didn't make it very far before some adults caught us, however. My father was... very upset, is all I'll say. I never knew the man had it in him to be so frightening."

The other man threw back his head with a loud laugh, which reverberated cheerfully in the solemn study. Suddenly the room didn't feel as imposing as it had in the past, with the scent of citrus wafting about and Takato's loud laugh filling the space up to its very corners. Outside, the sunset sent in shafts of orange and red light, giving the normally serious and severe purpose of the room a whole new meaning. It felt, he thought, less like the study of a duty-bound king and more the room of one who was entertaining good friends. A cozy place for conversation and talk. It was ludicrous, he knew, but that was how he felt right now. 

When he had mentioned his mother, he had hesitated somewhat: most people would look at him with eyes full of sympathy as soon as it became apparent that she was no longer of this world. Especially now, with both his parents gone, he didn't think he would be able to hand the weight of such mournful looks ー he had already seen enough of them at his father's funeral, and he had no desire to be surrounded by them now. Being in the midst of a crisis was a factor of it, yes, but if he was being completely honest he couldn't stand how everyone's gaze seemed to label him as tragic and one to be pitied. Seiichiro's look of closed but certain concern and Gen's look of determined resolve to stand by him had held him up, countering the one note gazes that others seemed to send his way constantly. The rest of their little group, too, he realized, had a different way of gazing at him: there was sympathy, yes, but not pitying, and it felt less like the gazes of one regarding someone as a tragedy and more of people who were trying to understand the weight of his pain, how he felt. It was... soothing, for lack of a better word. 

Takato hadn't reacted in the slightest; it was not, he knew, because the older had missed the remark (as bright and energetic as he appeared to be, he was remarkably sharp in his own way, and could read the mood of a room faster than others relatively well), but rather a kindness on his part that showed he wasn't going to let the lighter mood they had settled themselves into be broken by a show of sudden sympathy and understanding. In his own way, Takato likely was trying to show his care by not reacting ー he had his parents, and his siblings, and he knew that saying such halfhearted words like "I understand your pain" would only make things awkward and heavy. By keeping the mood light and cheerful, he prevented Kanade from falling into the line of sorrow that the reminder of his mother's death would likely invoke, and which would only bleed harder, like a wound being prodded and picked, if he added to it with a comment of acknowledgment. 

"A hero fanboy and an explorer maniac, huh?" Takato shook his head, grinning from ear to ear. "Man, we would've been one heck of a pair if we'd known each other as kids, don't you think? We'd either try to save the world or put it at risk in search of forbidden treasures. We'd find an ancient map, and it would lead us to the lair of a great and powerful dragon who controls nature, and we'd have to enter a contract with it in order to rescue the princess or prince held hostage by the enemy, so that we could restore peace and balance to the kingdom."

"Yes, I can imagine it," Kanade smiled, unable to contain his own laughter, "We would have to find the great and ancient magic sword in the ruins of a derelict palace, untouched by humans for a millennia, and wield it to fight off the hordes of evil soldiers, all users of dark magic who threaten the safety of the continent." Takato broke into another large, shouted laugh, and, pulled along by the other man's energy, Kanade could no longer keep his own laughter as soft as it had been before. He felt a small twist of envy for the man's younger siblings ー Takato was both energetic and reliable, and his family likely never ran out of reasons to smile and laugh with him around. It was refreshing for him, an only child who had grown up with one parent for almost half his life.

For a while they sat in comfortable silence, sipping their now-cooled tea. The sharp and sweet scent of citrus was still infused in the room's air, and the light from outside was slowly growing weaker as the sky steadily darkened. Walking up to the walls, Kanade slowly began to twist the knobs of the intricately designed oil lamps placed about the room, adding to the heightening sensation that night was approaching, and that the day was steadily drawing to a close. In the corner of his mind he wondered what the cooks had prepared today to feed everyone, and in another he wondered if Kanon and Riichi, or Aoi and Gabriel (anyone, really, in other words), had made any progress in their own respective searches. He also wondered where Seiichiro and Gen had gone; he hadn't seen them all that much today.

"Hey, so," Takato suddenly piped up, placing his teacup on the table with a small clink, "About what I was saying earlier..." Kanade turned around to see the older man rubbing his neck, looking slightly abashed. "I was half serious. Is there anything ー anything at all ー in the palace that _might_ potentially be hiding... I dunno, some sorta secret compartment or room? A hidden safe or storage? I know I'm kinda grasping at straws here, but we're using up all our options, it feels like."

Kanade frowned a little; he had no problems with considering the line of possibility, but he had no clue where to start. "There are many rooms in the palace," he said, slowly, "That _could_ potentially have some hidden contraption revealing more than meets the eye. With our technology, it is certainly possible, but," He glanced at his father's desk, articulating his next words slowly, "My father wasn't known for being overly cautious ー the polar opposite, in fact. But there were times where he could be an odd stickler and sometimes acted with more care than necessary. I could hardly understand it. But one thing I know for certain that if there is a chance he hid something, then it would be in a place that only he would think of, and not in some room where anyone can easily access anything."

"But if he sometimes _lacked_ caution," Takato tilted his head, "Then he might not have kept the thing ridiculously close to him, or on his person."

"Exactly," Kanade sighed, "In addition, he could be oddly clever over the most random things; if the king wanted to hide something, then he wouldn't have left it in a place only the king could access ー that would be too obvious. But neither could he leave it anywhere completely accessible, meaning he must have hid it somewhere no one would think to hide anything, normally." He began to pace around the room, trying to recall everything he knew about the palace. "There's nothing out of the ordinary here that I've ever seen, and we've searched everywhere... I can't imagine whereー" He froze; a loud, sharp sound had suddenly rung through the room, breaking his train of thought. When he looked, Takato had his palms held together ー he must have clapped his hands together, producing the abrupt and startling noise.

"Wasn't there a... a garden? Or something? Out there?" Takato snapped his fingers together impatiently, eyes squinted as he tried to, in Kanade's eyes, desperately recall whatever it was he was trying to say. "Wait, yeah! There was a garden out there with these stupidly high lamps full of _jiéshi,_ which I thought was odd, since putting them up there wouldn't _do_ much in the first place." 

Kanade's eyes widened; he had almost completely forgotten the odd garden his mother had planted with the _jiéshi-_ infused lamps. She had told him, in the manner of a young child telling her best friend a very important and exciting secret, that one day he would understand their purpose. He had later discovered the flowers were of an odd variety called Lunar Shades for their unique, nightshade-like appearance and beautifully white petals, like the shine of the silver moon itself, pearly and impossibly beautiful. Further research had led him to discover that flowers of a similar variety grew in every kingdom, across the entire continent, and that, despite the differing conditions and various landscapes of each territory, they grew without a hitch. As a result, no one really knew what the conditions necessary for them to grow were; they could grow near large mines that continued into mazes several feet underground; they could grow in the greenest of forests, their petals blazing in their diamond-white glory; they could grow in abundance in the deep mists of the northern mountains where it could become intolerably cold during the winter; they could grow near the water, or in the flattest of lands, or in valleys and near hills, or at the foot of a waterfall or a cliff. 

They were also, he had read, said to be a "sacred flower", untouchable and hard to cultivate artificially ー they weren't poisonous, despite their close resemblance to the deadly nightshade, but they gave off a pheromone that was said to drive living creatures awry, send odd signals to their heads that caused confusion or, in some extreme cases, illusions and nightmares. In the words of the botany book he had perused in search of such information, the flowers were a "blessing for their beauty, but a curse for their danger". The discovery had led him to become rather wary of his late mother's mysterious garden ー _why_ she had decided to cultivate such a dangerous breed of plant had been beyond his comprehension.

And it was that very garden, he remembered, that Takato had told him was where two of the Xifang assassins had attacked his younger brother and his friend, the red-haired boy named Koki. Putting aside the obvious dangers the two boys had faced, the older had told him the reason he and his younger brother had tried to approach the garden in the first place was the strong pull of magical energy they had felt there, raw and powerful. Doubtless the other two had been there for the same reason as well. This left the question of why _Koki_ had been there in the first place, but he put it aside to face the more pressing question: why had there even been _jiéshi_ in that garden in the first place? What purpose did it serve?

When he looked up, Takato was staring at him with a complicated expression. "That garden," Kanade told him, "Was my mother's. She had artisans design the lamps the way she desired, and she planted Lunar Shades there along with the God's stones ー for what reason, I do not know."

"Those lamps," Takato's expression became increasingly serious as he slowly began to voice aloud his thoughts. "They were really high up; I don't think even I, unless I stood on a bench or two stacked up, maybe, could've reached the things. They were shaped funny, too ー you said your mom assigned their designers and ordered them to make them the way they are?" Kanade nodded and the taller man slowly began to play around with his empty tea cup, eyes focused on a point on the table. "I remember my dad told me that raw _jiéshi_ is too powerful for humans to hold; it needs to slowly be refined to a certain level so that they don't kill anyone who's trying to touch them. But in some cases, really talented mages have the ability to touch _jiéshi_ that hasn't been fully refined; the perks of that, apparently, is that mages who have less magical prowess can't touch the _jiéshi_ those higher-level mages use, making the half-refined _jiéshi_ a ward of sorts, keeping others at bay. Most of the people who could pull that off was anyone in the royal families; they had the highest authority level of human magic in the past, what with their contracts and all, and I bet there's probably lots of royal members who have inherently strong magic capabilities, even without much opportunity to use them.

"The _jiéshi_ in those lamps was radiating a crazy strong kind of energy, strong enough that Ryu and I noticed it from outside the castle and were able to track the source. I bet it was the same with those Xifang guys; they noticed the pull of magical energy was particularly strong there, and came to investigate. But none of us ever tried to go _near_ the things ー yeah, there was a bunch of other shit going on, but I remember thinking 'we need to investigate', but at the same time I felt ー I dunno ー _scared_ of the energy radiating off those things. Like I would get incinerated if I tried to touch them ー not that I easily could've, anyway, with how high up the things were." He shot Kanade a small, sheepish grin. "There aren't any spells I could think of ー or can't use, to be more accurate ー that would help me float long enough near the top to see for myself what was there. And maybe," he added, "There's a reason for those lamp designs... no, I'm _positive_ that there's a reason. Nan Fang has a shit ton of advanced tech in comparison to the other three kingdoms, right? Then there must be some gimmick in those lamps that should make them accessible; there's no point throwing in a bunch of powerful _jiéshi_ stones only to let them sit and rot in a container that no one can even open."

"So what are you suggesting, then?" He already knew the answer, but he felt compelled to ask, to check if his suspicions weren't off the mark with the other's. Judging from the glint in Takato's eyes ー excitement from a new discovery or delight at his own deductions, he didn't know ー they likely weren't; they were probably thinking the same thing as the other, although neither of them had directly voiced it out loud.

"In other words," Takato puffed out his chest like a proud peasant, feathers fluffed out in a confident display. "There's something hidden in the _jiéshi_ garden your mom planted, something that's being protected like crazy, to the point they needed to use half-refined _jiéshi_ to protect it, despite the risks. And I bet if your father hid anything important, then it would've been in the one place that a non-royal would likely be unable to touch, but would also be the last place anyone would expect anyone to hide anything."

* * *

Kaiji didn't really have the words to describe the atmosphere of the scene he was gazing upon outside of complete and utter confusion.

What he had been doing, he remembered, was trying to find the kitchens of the palace (because a whole week here, somehow, had not made him familiar with navigating the building's vast and towering halls), in hopes of finding more strawberry jam. _Why_ Riku had specifically asked for that flavor only was still a mystery to him (there had been more different flavors to choose from in the palace than he had ever seen offered at any market) and after some back and forth debate over who should go find them, he had been chosen for the task, solely because the other had agreed to assist Riichi, who had come calling in search of someone's help in reordering the (now)extremely messy archives, which Naruse Kanon had torn through in her search for the answers to pretty much every question to exist in the universe (Ryu's words, not his). Riku had made a face, but it was he who had pushed Kaiji to go find the kitchens and bring back more jam, so he had had no one to blame for his predicament save for himself. They could have roped Koki into their trouble as well, but Ryu had asked him to come with him somewhere pretty earlier on, and was nowhere to be found. This had drawn out a noticeably excited reaction in Riku, although Kaiji hadn't really found his enthusiasm all that contagious.

So he had been left to wander the halls, wondering which floor he had happened upon (he had no memory of using a stairwell but he had come across a window several feet in the air so that was that), and also wondering how in the name of the Vermilion Bird anyone managed to navigate the place ー not only did every door look the same, he didn't think he could find his way to the damn _entrance_ if he tried. He had probably passed in front of the same rooms at least six times now, and, resigned to being stuck in this maze of a castle, he, half expecting to throw himself into danger, yanked open a door, not really caring at this point what he would find. Whether it somehow be another garden, the changing room to a bathing house, yet another stuffy room with a desk and paintings of several important people, or a room with a giant tea table, he no longer cared. 

What he _did_ find was the sight of Seiichiro holding a sword to Gen's throat, Gabriel standing by a rack of extremely sharp and pointy weapons with several of the things gathered in his arms, and Aoi rifling through a large wooden chest, pulling out strange, definitely dangerous objects of metal, scrutinizing each one with the look of an artisan gazing at their apprentice's work. At the sound of the large wooden door being pushed upon, they all swiveled their heads to where he stood, half-frozen in an awkward position with his arms thrown out and one leg stepping forward. Heedless of his embarrassment, however, he felt himself break out into a cold sweat, wondering if he had just walked in on something important and may or may not find _himself_ at the end of that sword next.

"Um," he stammered, wishing one of the older men would _say_ something; they were all just gazing at him impassively, not seeming too annoyed at his intrusion, "Er, I can... leave, if you're all busy..." He slowly began to back out, muttering, "Sorry for disturbing you..."

"Actually, we were just finishing," Gen rolled onto his back, ignoring the tip of the blade pointed at him, "Did you tally that one down, Gabriel-san? Two wins, five losses for me." Closing his eyes, he tilted his head back, and Seiichiro finally removed the sword pointed at his jugular. Closer examination revealed that the tip was covered in some sort of small, rubber casing, and the blade gleamed dully, revealing it not as the ones he normally saw at their hips, in sheaths, during the day, but rather weapons that had likely been created with the purpose of non-lethal sparring in mind. "I still have a long way to go before I completely beat you, Seiichiro-san."

"You came close several times," was the cool, albeit kindly response, "You just have to work a little harder at your reaction times, especially towards the second half of the bout. You start off very strong, but because you focus too much on a speedy victory, you start to lose your earlier focus and stamina as the match drags on. While focusing on finishing off the enemy is a good thing, it's also important to remember that your opponent is thinking the exact same thing, and that they won't always be taken down by quick attacks and harsh blows." The bespectacled young retainer was running a cloth with great care over the practice blade, his movements smooth and evidence of a well-practiced hand. Some of Kaiji's awkwardness blew away with his interest, and he walked over, interest brimming inside of him like steadily boiling water in a pot.

"These two were just sparring," Gabriel shot him a friendly smile, hands working busily as he sorted through the various weapons in his arms, "With the trouble going on recently, it never hurts to prepare a little more for battles such as these. After all, our opponents are not just skilled and crafty mages, they also have talented swordsmen on their side." He held out a small mace for Kaiji to peer at, holding it just out of reach so the younger boy wouldn't accidentally hurt himself on one of the spikes protruding out of the weapon.

"From what we've seen." This comment came from Aoi, whose nose was scrunched as he rifled through the wooden chest. "I certainly hope that those assassins were their 'very best', because I would rather not have to deal with a whole army who fights with that level of bloodlust and skill." 

"You say that," Gen had lifted his upper half, turning slightly so he could see the young mayor, "But your earlier work with that dagger makes me think that you would be perfectly capable of taking on more than one of those men from Xifang they sent us that day, had our fight not been so abrupt and cut short." His words were slightly teasing, but there was a tone of respect in them that made his words ring true. If someone from the royal palace, a retainer trained to protect the royal family member they had been selected to serve, said that a person was good with a weapon, then that person likely _was_ good with a weapon. Whether they believed it themselves or not was a different story.

Kaiji glanced down at the weapons ー each of them glinted a harsh silver in the streaming light, which fell from the windows far above their heads, some of which was partially blocked off by the wooden beams stretching across the length of the ceiling, so high it almost seemed to act as the sky itself. He didn't have any desire to take one in his hands, but looking at them he realized the magnitude of the situation they were in ー he hadn't _not_ realized it before, but it had never settled so heavily in his stomach as now, with the sight of the swords and spears and all manner of arms giving off a threatening light, surrounded by people who knew how to use them, and were preparing to do so. It made the situation acutely more real. 

"Why did you come here, anyway?" He didn't realize the question was directed towards him, until Gabriel gave his shoulder a friendly little tap. Turning around, he was met with the sight of four pairs of eyes all looking in his direction. Seiichiro cleared his throat and repeated the question for Gen, who had made the original inquiry: "What brought you here, Hiura-kun?" The use of his last name made him temporarily go silent, until he remembered that yes, that was his family name and thus it made sense for people who were not completely his friends to use it. Kanade had tended to use his first name from the beginning, however, as he did with everyone, making for his momentary confusion.

"I was... looking for the kitchen." A lame answer, but it was the truth. "And I couldn't find it, so..." He spread his arms in a "here we are" gesture, and Aoi let out a snort of amusement. "It's no wonder," laughed the mayor jovially, covering his mouth with the sleeve of his robe, "This place is too wide to wander about properly. One will find themselves better accustomed to navigating a spiraling cave than this immense labyrinth of a palace." Kaiji nodded several times in agreement, and the tension in the room loosened as all five of them let out soft laughs of their own. Gen grinned slightly, before pulling his entire body free of the floor, practice gear hanging loosely off of him as he began to pull it off even before he was fully on his feet. Seiichiro was carrying the now-cleaned blade back to one of the weapons racks, and Kaiji saw several other practice swords sheathed nicely in their wooden holders. 

Several years ago, he remembered, he had come into close contact with a weapon, only once. When Koki had shown him the contents of the pouch he had been carrying with him when they had found him, they had discovered an intricately carved but rusted and worn dagger inside, which his own parents had whisked away before any of them could cut themselves on the reddish metal. Years afterwards, Koki had snuck the thing back without telling anyone ー he hadn't told anyone, but Kaiji had seen him staring down at it, in the dark, once, expression unreadable in the dark. He could only surmise that the boy had managed to take it back, although he couldn't imagine why he would want the thing. The blade was almost beyond repair ー in his opinion at least ー and if he wanted it fixed it would total up to a rather costly sum. He didn't even think Koki knew how to wield it; his grip on the blade had been clumsy, the fingers of someone unaccustomed to holding weapons. He had seen plenty of warriors and weapon-wielding people in both of the villages he had lived in, and their handling of even the flimsiest of daggers had managed to look graceful and professional. Koki's hands had held the dagger awkwardly, like he was cradling a newborn chick and had no clue how tight he could clasp the thing without hurting it. Ever since then, he seemed to carry it like a charm of sorts, always wrapped in a long silk scarf that Riku's mother had been deciding to throw away, before he begged her to let him have it. It was small, so if he tucked it gently into his robes, no one would ever notice it. He didn't know if he had brought the weapon with him to the palace, although he wouldn't be surprised if he had. 

For some reason, however, something prevented him from telling Riku about this... attachment Koki seemed to have to the weapon, not when it was apparent he couldn't use the thing. He had almost told his friend, when the redhead had gone off into town one day without telling anyone, and came back with nothing in particular. Later that night, he had seen him eyeing the dagger in his hands, its blade now gleaming. It took him a moment to realize that his friend really _had_ gone to get the thing repaired, and he debated confronting the red-haired boy directly, before something bad (although he couldn't say for sure _what_ he was afraid of) happened, but nothing ever did, and he decided to let his friend be for the time being. Eventually he would have to tell Riku, but some part of him hesitated; the dagger was a supposed relic from Koki's prior life before his amnesia, and he felt it would be cruel to make him part with it, not when he seemed so attached.

Briefly, he wondered if he could identify what type of weapon his friend had been carrying around with him, and his eyes began to travel over the armory in the room. Seiichiro, seeming to notice his interest, came closer, wiping the sweat from his earlier sparring off of his brow. "Are you interested in arms?" he asked, coming next to Kaiji, who was peering at the assortment of daggers and knives hanging along the walls.

"I'm..." he hesitated to answer, but decided to go for it, "Actually, I'm looking for a specific type."

"Oh?" The retainer gave him a curious look. "Might I inquire as to why?"

"I... saw this type of knife when I was a kid, but I could never describe it very well, so I could never find out what it was, exactly." A little white lie, but it wasn't completely untrue.

The young retainer tilted his head, gesturing down at the weapons on display. "Well, it would take a while to examine each and every single one, so why don't you describe the weapon you saw to me now? If you can, of course. It doesn't have to be a perfect recollection."

Kaiji traced his memories back to the sight of the dagger after Koki had had it repaired. It had been thin, almost shaped like a katana, if he had been looking at it right, but the blade had almost seemed like a needle in comparison to his recollections of the large blades he had seen the imperial warriors who sometimes were seen in town returning from a far-off patrol. The hilt had been of a simple wooden make, nothing fancy, and there had been no sheath, hence Koki's use of the scarf. It made him nervous, he now realized, thinking his friend was perfectly okay with carrying a weapon like that in his clothes, protected by the thin layer of only a silk scarf.

Seiichiro listened to his explanation, face serious. In the back, he could see Aoi putting the weapons away, occasionally throwing an order or a question at Gabriel, who was writing something down on a sheet of parchment paper. Gen was lightly stretching out his body, practice gear at his feet, his own training sword already put away. The room was mostly quiet, and Kaiji found his own voice got naturally lower to match the silent atmosphere. 

"It sounds like a _tanto_ sword," he said, after having given his description some thought, "They're almost like short _katanas_ , as you say, and tend to be commonly mistaken as straight daggers or thin knives. Category-wise, however, we classify them as swords. Or we did."

"Did?"

"The weapon isn't so common in Nan Fang," explained Seiichiro, his tone scholarly, "Not banned, of course, but it's not terribly popular. Usually, sword users in the south have always preferred something with more reach, and dagger users preferred the more curved or rounded shape of the blades of your standard daggers and knives. The _tanto_ isn't as popular here as it is in Beifang and Xifang, and Dongfang tends to lean on long to middle ranged weaponry; they're not the types for speedy and sneaky close combat, since they're more accustomed to old-fashioned battles. Beifang and Xifang have always tended to use magic in battle, but their weapon range always differs greatly, particularly in terms of type. So you won't normally find a unit in either kingdom that utilizes the same weapon between its warriors ー those three _dao_ users from Xifang were probably the upper limit for how many warriors used that weapon in that squadron alone." He gave Kaiji a funny look. "It's not terribly off, but I am rather surprised you would have seen a warrior on patrol or a guard for your town using a _tanto._ I've only ever seen a handful in the palace alone, and maybe one or two users in the capital."

In Kaiji's mind, he saw Koki staring down at the now named _tanto_ blade in the dark, expression unreadable, and suddenly he felt a little lonely, all thoughts of jam erased clean. It felt rather pathetic, he thought, that he had been so brightly searching for something so random, only to keep hearing things he didn't think he wanted to hear each and every time. _First it's the convergence point,_ he thought bitterly, _now it's either Beifang or Xifang._ As his mind wandered, he suddenly remembered what he and Riku had been discussing that day, and quickly turned to the older boy, whose gaze was fixed on the weapons again. 

"Seiichiro-san?"

"Hm?" The other turned his head toward Kaiji again.

"Well, this might be a weird question, but..."

"What is it?"

"Um... do you know what a 'forsaken child' is?"

Half expecting the answer to be a confused look and a shrug, much like the one Riku had given him the other day, he waited for the other's response, face turned away. However, there was none; only a deafening silence that seemed to stretch out to eternity. Puzzled, he peered into the older boy's face... and froze when he saw his expression.

Seiichiro was wearing a look like he had either gotten shot with a rock shot from a child's makeshift slingshot, or like Kaiji had just told him that they were in the north and not the south. Behind him, the other three had gone silent as well ー he hadn't asked the question in a particularly loud voice, but they all seemed to have heard it. Not a single person spoke for a while, and the blonde suddenly worried he had said something he shouldn't have. The feeling was akin to that of someone who had set off a cannon (a newly developed weapon in Nan Fang) thinking it was a tool for setting off fireworks, only to accidentally demolish a portion of a town. A cold bead of sweat traced itself down his neck, disappearing under his shirt. 

_I might have screwed up,_ he thought, although he had no idea _why._ Had he asked something bad?

Seiichiro closed his eyes and breathed out a long, long sigh. "Hiura-kun," he asked, "Where did you hear about that?"

"I..." _Shit,_ he realized. Telling them meant he would have to admit he had heard it from Takato and Ryu, and he didn't know if that would be safe to mention. At the same time, however, he couldn't imagine how, and he decided to adhere to honesty, at least for the time being. "I heard the Kyogoku brothers discussing it, and I didn't know what it meant, so..."

"I see," sighed Seiichiro, "Well, then you didn't bear any ill will, so it can't be helped."

"Huh?" _Ill will?_

"The term 'forsaken child' is strictly forbidden in Nan Fang," This came from Gen, who had walked over to the two, expression difficult to read. "It's derogatory, and worse, it spreads unjust rumors about what is _technically_ a medical condition... of sorts. That's the stance Nan Fang takes, anyway."

"'Medical condition'?"

"The proper term we use is _niliu._ The 'reverse flow'. It refers to anyone who has the _inherent ability_ to scramble the normally well-balanced and controlled flows of magic produced by the _jiéshi._ And," Seiichiro sighed, "It _is_ technically a 'curse', but we don't follow the occult beliefs stating they are a danger. It's an illness, plain and simple, and the only ones it hurts are the people who are born with it. In that sense, it really may be a curse. But it's not a great calamity. It's merely an anomaly born of standard order, nothing more, and on top of that, there are very few people who are actually afflicted with _niliu."_

"But there is _one_ rumor in Nan Fang surrounding the source of the _niliu,_ " interjected Gen. "A rather fascinating one, too."

"What is it?"

"They say _niliu_ is tied in with the odd geology and mysterious energy surrounding the convergence point. And that those who are afflicted inevitably wind up having some connection to the place.

"But it's just a rumor. After all, no one has met a person with _niliu_ for centuries, so there's no evidence backing it up. All we can say, however, is that it's a rather cumbersome illness."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So the forsaken child myth is... kinda solved? Not really? Still leaves a lot of questions, doesn't it? Are you dying to know more? (Please be dying to know more....) Also hooray for finding out things! Treasure hunting and mystery solving isn't just for the books, friends.
> 
> I intended to write a much longer chapter, but I felt it was okay leaving it where it ended. I promise things will get exciting soon.
> 
> As always, if you can spare the time, please leave a kudos and/or a comment, and thank you very much for reading. To the readers both old and new, you all rock. I say this every time, but my gratitude and happiness when I see the hit counter go up makes this whole grueling effort worthwhile.


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING! WARNING! THIS AUTHOR (read: idiot) TRIED TO MAKE A [redacted] SCENE! READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!
> 
> ....this makes it sound more severe than it is, but I promise you it's not. I'm just overdramatic and I think I'm funny but I'm actually... well, not funny. At all. But I like to pretend that I am. I also like to pretend that I can write. Shhh... we can all have our own dreams.
> 
> Shorter chapter this time around, too. Sorry~ (<\-- wow that looks annoying) 
> 
> Oh, and Happy 20th Chapter. *sniffs* Look how far we've come... (sheds a single, manly tear) I feel so fulfilled... Like an actual, proper fanfic writer on this site...

The capital wasn't so different, Koki mused, from his hometown. It was certainly larger, yes, and gave off a wealthier appearance in the quality and make of the clothes the townspeople wore and the appearance of the shops and houses. Even the curtains he could see hanging from behind glass windows looked a little fancier than the ones of simple make he was used to, with no patterns and tied at the centers when parted by a single cord, usually handmade. But aside from the slight differences in the apparent wealth of the two towns, the atmosphere the place gave off didn't necessarily scream "financially superior" or "brimming with nobility". It was a normal, lovely town, full of vibrant colors and bustling energy. Merchants called energetically from open stalls, men and women of all ages scurried to and fro; either perusing the open stalls, or carrying baskets loaded with laundry or fresh produce at their sides or atop their heads. Children, _kendama_ and kites and colorful balls in hand, ran cheerfully through the cobbled streets, happily searching for some open patch of grass or yard to play. At the bridges, where stone statues of the Vermilion Bird stood poised like sentinels, several boys and girls his own age stood pointing at the water below, and, with a quick glance of his own, he could see the blurry shapes of several _koi_ fish, blazing orange and white and black and gold, all swimming busily. Even smaller children rushed past, small makeshift toy boats in hand, likely to find a safe place by the banks to let loose their creations upon the calm blue waters. 

Ryu, who had been walking in silence beside him for the entirety of their walk through the capital, was scrutinizing the buildings and stalls with the same intensity. Likely because of the recent... morbid events, the town wasn't as energetic or full as Koki had initially anticipated, but ー while he felt guilty for thinking so ー it meant that the two of them could walk through the capital without much trouble, or running into any overly large crowds. The calmer, quieter atmosphere likely made it easier for Ryu as well; he was positive that, had the town been even more bustling than it was now, the wavy-haired boy would've done a complete one-eighty and went straight back up the path they had came, all the way to the palace. _That_ would've been a waste of a hike that had been a lot more tedious than Kaiji and Riku had claimed they would have to take.

Aoi had given them some money before they left (at Takato's behest, according to the disgruntled young mayor), warning them not to mingle too much in the capital; as soon as they got back, the older members of their group were planning on discussing their next course of action. Today had been a break of sorts, to prevent them all from possibly losing their sanities in the onslaught of clues and work. Riku had encouraged him to go with Ryu around the capital as well, and Kaiji had recommended several store names to him on the way, warning him not to get lost (lest he come and strangle the redhead for doing so). His raven-haired friend had (to appease the blonde, most likely) pointed out that Ryu was with him, taking away any worries of him getting lost. Then Takato had stuck his head into the conversation by pointing out that his younger brother had no experience in the capital himself, leading to the younger sputtering in embarrassment, which somehow ensued into chaotic arguing that was only broken up by Seiichiro coming in and (very pointedly) mentioning that if he and Ryu didn't go now, they would have even less time to spend in the capital than they had initially planned. 

The entire walk down from the palace, he and Ryu had lobbed conversation after conversation off of each other, always starting with a question. Surprisingly, Ryu was the one who started them off with the questions, but halfway through Koki had a vague suspicion that was a result of some sort of reflex within his friend to deflect any personal questions directed at himself. He didn't bother pointing it out, or forcing the issue ー he didn't really know what else he could ask that would serve as a starter for the two of them to get talking. The other boy's entire view of the world differed from his own, from his tastes to his aesthetics to what he believed. But it didn't bother him too much; meeting and talking to someone with such a different upbringing had its perks, and was rather fun in itself. 

"What kinds of games did you play as a small kid?" Ryu would ask. Or, "What was your schooling like? What's your favorite food in Nan Fang? Have you ever seen a turtle duck before? My brother said we would see lots of them in the south, but I've never seen one yet." Small, personal questions that didn't intrude too far, but held the sort of warmth coming from someone who generally wanted to know more about the other. And Koki would answer the best he could, leading to yet another question, and in the back of his mind he found himself bemusedly wondering at the boy's sudden talkativeness, until he remembered how he was the one who had wanted to become better friends, and then felt one-sidedly pleased and overjoyed at the other's newfound enthusiasm to talk more.

Walking through the capital, however, had quieted the both of them down; there was so much to _see_ that they couldn't focus on anything the other said. Only half-remembering the names of the stalls Kaiji had listed off to him, they ambled about, stopping every once in a while to examine anything that caught their interest: a brooch shaped like a six-winged butterfly, a pitch-black _koi_ much larger than its peers, a merchant's stall with a parrot in a cage, who happily listed off prices to anyone who tried to ask. After passing under several red arches the color of a deep sunset, they stopped in (what they assumed was) the center of the capital, where a small park of sorts had been placed. A man-made pond, with small fish that he'd never seen before swimming about, sat at its center, arched by a small bridge that was less put there for practical use than for show. Drooping willow trees hung near the water's edge, almost brushing against the floating lily pads, and a stone bench had been placed near the banks of the pond, below the willows, almost completely hidden from the public eye. If his two childhood friends were here, they would've been beside themselves with the joy of finding a new place to explore, however small. With the meat buns they had purchased earlier in their hands, the two stood gazing at the sight with something akin to awe, until Ryu, without any warning, started to walk straight for it, his expression hard to see from the side because of his longish hair. Flustered, Koki quickly rushed up to the other, trying to match the pace with which the other walked. He didn't bother calling out ー the entire atmosphere about the place whispered of quiet and peace, and, oddly enough, standing here suddenly made the bustle of the town fade away, as if this were a separate island on its own, cut off from the rest of the world. 

Under the willows, Ryu had already settled onto the stone bench ー it was cold, hinting that it hadn't been used for a while. With how well-hidden it was, he suspected that the denizens of the town itself sometimes forgot its existence, despite its location at the heart of the town. The seclusion from the earlier activity-filled energy of the capital they had walked through suddenly left him feeling nervous, without fully understanding why. Maybe it was the sudden coolness of the air around them, now that they were shaded from the sun, or the quiet of the space around them, where no one else was walking. He could see the bridge over the pond, but from this angle anyone crossing the bridge or walking by the pond itself likely wouldn't see them. Maybe that was the reason, he told himself, as he unwrapped the oily paper from around the steaming meat bun, which hadn't lost an ounce of its warmth since they had purchased it from the stall. There had been a small hassle where Koki had nearly dropped their bag of coins, with Ryu exasperatedly pulling the drawstrings as they combined their efforts to extract just the right amount of currency. He knew Takato had begged Kanade and the others to lend them some "spending allowance", but he hadn't thought they would give them... well, _this_ much.

Next to him, he could see Ryu sinking his teeth into his own meal, and they sat in silence for a while, simply enjoying the flavors of their food, which tasted much more homey than he had expected. Like the rather extravagantly designed loafs of bread his friends had brought back on their excursion to the capital, he had thought all food tasted that way ー delicious, but of high quality, and a little too fancy for his own tastes. But these meat buns tasted like the home-cooked meals Kaiji or Riku's mothers could make, and he had no sooner started on his own meal than finished it in two heartbeats.

"...That was fast." The soft comment, so lowly uttered he had barely heard it, came from his side, and he turned to see Ryu calmly polishing off the last bits of his own bun.

"Says you," retorted Koki, trying to hide his nervousness ( _why_ did he feel nervous?), "You're almost done with that yourself." 

"Yeah, well..." Ryu glanced down at his almost-finished meal, "It tasted way better than I was expecting. Just like the ones my mom used to make back home, almost." Throwing the last few bites into his mouth, his lips curved up into a small, warm smile, and Koki felt his chest tighten at the sight. "It tastes... nostalgic. That's the word. It feels like forever since I've eaten Mom's meals... man, she must be worried sick. Her _and_ Dad." A deep sigh. "We didn't mean to run off to make them worried; we just felt like we had to do _something,_ me and Takato. We wanted to get to the bottom of everything so bad, so we packed and left without really explaining things to them, and I'm sure they're probably really concerned."

"I'm surprised you managed to leave, then." Koki blinked and looked at him, and, despite knowing it was an insensitive thing to ask, he continued, "Weren't you worried that they would be scared for you?"

Ryu gave a weak laugh at that, "I was actually going along with Takato ー and _he_ got swept up in the moment, and thought that we could somehow solve the mystery, just the two of us. When we ran into Kanon, we suddenly realized just how far we'd come, but by then it was too late to turn back. We occasionally send a fire message, telling them we're okay ー naturally we can't tell them about the whole mess, or we would probably give them _both_ heart attacks. And I don't want to scare my younger siblings; they both know Takato and I sometimes go exploring and stuff, but they've never seen that as something life-threatening or dangerous. Xuanwu-forbid they ever know; I don't want to give kids barely old enough to carry a bucket of water anxiety." 

Koki suspected that both of them realized the contradictions in Ryu's words ー if he really didn't want to make his family anxious, he would've probably been trying to convince his brother to return right about now, not hanging out in the capital with him. He suspected his friend really _did_ want to return, but he was also rational enough to realize the risks they would be putting his family in, and the rest of the continent. As dramatic as it was, they were the only ones trying to fight this... threat, and Ryu knew of the potential dangers it possessed ー at the very least, he was aware of far more than Koki, who had gotten himself involved (by choice, but it didn't change his occasional confusion).

Koki looked out at the pond, firmly trying not to turn his gaze toward the other, who was lightly licking the last of the crumbs off of his fingertips. Fumbling with his own hands, he began, for no reason, to count the lily pads floating on the water's surface. He had counted eleven in total when he felt his skin prickle slightly, and when he turned around, his eyes were caught by a pair of deep brown eyes, darker than his own, gazing at him with an intensity he had never felt before. The gaze wasn't quite _scrutinizing_ or observatory as it was... questioning. It felt like something in him, in the depths of his soul, was being searched with those eyes, and despite his attempts to tear his gaze away, he found himself ensnared by the other's eyes, which seemed to have no intention of letting him go.

"Ryu," he said, quietly, trying to hide the nervousness in his voice, which seemed intent on making itself known, "W...what are you doing? What is it?" 

"......." The other continued to stare at him, before muttering, "I've been wondering for a long while, but is your hair naturally red?"

"H...huh?" Koki blinked, and his emotions came awash with confusion, "My... hair?"

"Uh-huh," Ryu nodded, "Your hair. Has it always been this wine-red color?" At his words, his hands came up out of nowhere, gently running themselves through Koki's hair, and the redhead was caught between flustered panic and complete and utter confusion at the situation unfolding in front of him. 

Ryu's hands were strong and warm ー they weren't extraordinarily _large,_ although they were of a size that was reassuring, and felt sturdy and reliable. They seemed to radiate warmth; the fingers that entangled themselves in his red hair gave off a comforting sensation, safe and sound, as they gently fingered strands of his hair, holding it like threads of crimson silk. His mind flashed back to all the other times the other youth had _touched_ him in this intimate way, and each time he marveled at the strength he could feel from the other, as well as the sense of comfort. It almost made him forget that the other had asked him a question, until he noticed the boy's questioning gaze, and felt his cheeks flush with embarrassment.

"Oh, um..." he stuttered, trying to turn his face away to hide his reddening face, but unable to for the strength in Ryu's hands, which compelled him to keep his head facing forward. "I... guess so? It always has been, as far as I remember, but it might not have before, y'know..." Moving his own hand to his head, he tapped it twice with a finger and for a second, Ryu's face scrunched into an expression of apologetic regret. "Why?" he asked, trying to keep his voice light, "Have you never seen a person with red hair before?"

"I have, but never this deep color," came the reply, in a low, almost sensual, voice, making his cheeks flush even deeper, "I don't think I've ever seen anyone with this color of red, ever. Not this beautiful."

Trying to fight back the squeak that rose in his throat, he mumbled, "I'm... thanks? I mean, I think there are much nicer hair colors... Riku's blue fringe is cool... there's also Kanade-san's light brown hair, which is kinda like the color of milk tea... and you have really deep brown hair, which makes you look... super... cool..." The last part became fragmented and broken; he could barely utter the words for the courage with which it took to utter them. "A... anyway, that doesn't explain why you keep... touching my hair." He tried to, finally, brush off the other's hands, but his adversary simply moved them down to cup his face. He couldn't fight back the squeak that rose in his throat this time, and he wondered how deeply his face could redden before he fainted from the overheat.

"Thanks," Ryu stared at him, deeply. "But I'm not talking about other guys' hair colors ー I'm talking about _yours._ And how I think it's pretty." He gulped as he watched the normally cool face curve its lips upward in a teasing smile. "And you say that, but you haven't really tried to get me to stop up until now, have you?"

The redhead let out an indignant squawk, trying to pull his face from the other's hands, making the dark-haired boy laugh merrily. The sound echoed in the quiet space of the pond, disappearing up into the willow trees' branches above their heads. Suddenly the grip of the hands loosened, only slackly holding themselves against his own cheeks, which were still flaring as if burnt, and Koki, for the first time, became acutely aware of how close their faces were; the tips of their noses were practically brushing against each other and Ryu's eyes, which still stared intensely at him, were only a few inches from his own. However, the intensity in them had weakened, and in them there seemed posed a question, and, despite not even knowing what the question itself was, or not even understanding what was happening at the moment, Koki gave a small nod ー something in him seemed to urge him to, gently, despite not knowing what it was he was nodding to in the first place. But Ryu's gaze was gentle, as warm as the sun itself, and something in him simply melted, willing to accept whatever happened next. There was trust, but something else a little more... inherent. Natural. Almost like a part of him was anticipating what came next, and yet not ready for it at all.

As these thoughts ran circles in his mind, the other's face came even closer, filling his eyes, and he felt Ryu's lips gently begin to graze his own.

* * *

At the beginning, Koki's shoulders had stiffened up to the point Ryu was worried the boy had become a rock, but as he slowly deepened the kiss he could feel the redhead's tension naturally slip away, as easily as _koi_ swam down a stream. While he had never kissed anyone before, Koki's lips seemed incredibly soft compared to the average person ー they were made of fuzzy light and warmth, as fleeting as a flickering candle, and he marveled at their small shape and fullness. Naturally deepening their exchange, he felt his own being practically scatter at the sensation, trying desperately to keep his rationale in check. But faced with this, the redhead's complete trust and vulnerability, he found he couldn't tear himself away. In the first place, if he had been keeping check of his rationale from the beginning, he wouldn't have initiated the sudden kiss, but seeing that head of wine-red hair under the swaying willows, seeing him eat that meat bun with such seriousness it would've drawn a smile from anyone watching, he had given up on that. 

In the back of his mind he can hear the more logical parts of his already fuzzy mind asking him a myriad of sensible questions, ranging from the calmer "this isn't really the time and place..." thoughts to "what the absolute _fuck_ do you think you're doing right now". And while he normally relied on said sensible thoughts, the rest of him couldn't care less at what his common sense urged him to do, instead simply letting himself be pushed by the flow of his instincts. 

Koki was not... _fantastic_ at the art, to say the very least, but seeing as he was the one who had started on him out of seemingly nowhere, he supposed it couldn't really be helped. That, plus the assumption ー which was likely true ー that he had never had any prior experience before (not that he had any room to judge himself). But there was something oddly heartwarming about the frantic way with which he tried to keep up, even though it was apparent that he was just about falling apart on the inside right about now, like a teddy bear with its seams coming undone. His eyes were squeezed shut, his entire face flushed ー by all accounts and purposes one couldn't exactly call this "beautiful and heart-wrenching", like the scenes in novels and plays. Yet in Ryu's mind, he found this moment making his own heart beat faster than anything either of the two could conjure up; no rose-colored scene of romance could measure up to the almost-euphoric sensation of the moment, with the redhead practically melting in front of him, a mess and completely out of sorts, yet accepting Ryu's approach and even trying to reciprocate himself, to some degree.

At that point, he didn't think either of them was thinking rationally; at the very least, _he_ definitely wasn't. Carefully tilting the angle of his head, just a little to the side, he ran his tongue, lightly, over the other's bottom lip, causing the red-haired boy's shoulders to jolt, eyes opening wide in surprise to meet Ryu's own, which were gazing straight at him, posing an unspoken question. For what felt like the span of an eternity, but perhaps had only lasted a few seconds, the other boy's eyes darted nervously about him, gauging their surroundings, the belated realization they were outdoors seeming to hit him. However, after a long, long moment, he gave a nod, slight and small, but with conviction. When Ryu continued to stare at him, the question still posed in his eyes as if prompting his confidence in his affirmative, the redhead gave a larger, more eager nod, accompanied by an even deeper flush of his pale skin, extending down to the exposed skin of his neck, peering out from the robes Kanade had lent them during their stay. Ryu held his gaze a moment longer, but without further prompting, he gently ran his tongue over the other's lips, a little stronger than the last time, and after some trepidation, he felt Koki open his mouth, a sliver of an opening, eyes swimming in his head as if self-conscious. 

They didn't move from that position for a while, Ryu simply repositioning his head at different angles every now and then, but he felt himself slowly leaning in, pushing the other over, and it wasn't until he saw the stone bench they were occupying at the redhead's back had he realized that he had completely pushed him over, until he was practically covering him from the top. Very deliberately, he released the other's mouth, tracing his own over the redhead's cheek, down to the finely shaped curve of his neck, and he heard the very audible gasp that came from the red-haired youth as he did so. He applied a little more force in his lips on the other's neck, noting the stiffening of his body, as well as the small shudder that ran through him at the action and the way he covered his mouth with his own hand, as if trying to block his voice from coming out. Ryu simply ran his lips over his Adam's apple lightly, admiring the well-formed curve of the boy's neck and trying not to let the soft whine it elicited from the redhead distract him, although there was little to be helped for that. When he moved his lips away to look at the other's face properly, he saw Koki's own open a fraction, and under his relatively long lashes did he see his eyes were slightly blurred and shining oddly, disoriented, but not in a confused, out-of-sorts way. This was more... sensual. It was unguarded, and there was something in there that put in mind the color of the air when the cherry blossoms bloomed, but it was also those eyes that made him take perfect account of their situation, and suddenly all his senses came rushing in, hitting him with more force than the blunt of a blade when it smacked against his face. Yet he found he wasn't as flustered as he ought to be, and rather than pulling up in a rush, he slowly lifted his upper half, giving room for Koki to also sit up properly on the bench as well. An awkward, flushed silence hung between the two of them ー for a while, Koki didn't even make a move to rise, blinking a little, staring at the trees for a good minute, before he shot up with the force of someone who had just woken up and realized that it was well past noon. The move was so Koki-like he couldn't help the small laugh that made its way through his mouth, at complete odds with their situation.

* * *

They must have been there, under the willow trees, for a longer time than they had thought, because when one of them decided to look up at the sky for no particular reason, they found it turning a shade of orange-red that signaled the beginning of yet another sunset, and they both hurriedly stood, remembering the warnings they had received to not linger in the capital for too long. Thinking about how to explain their excursion to Takato without mentioning what had... happened at the end, Ryu began to walk towards the drooping branches of the willows, which seemed to almost serve as the doorway to this small, secluded place, well-hidden from the prying eyes of others. Offhandedly he wondered if there had been a specific reason for that arrangement, but when his memories dragged him back to what had just transpired not even ten minutes ago, he felt heat gather in his cheeks and resolutely told himself to shut up. For once all sides of his brain agreed with the arrangement.

Koki was staring ahead as they walked, back the path they came, and he found himself shooting the redhead small glances out of the corner of his eyes, worrying that he would find anger there, or disgust. However, not a single negative emotion could be found ー if anything, the boy's expression could be described as serene, although his cheeks would occasionally be dusted with a light sprinkling of pink, as if his memories kept being dragged to what had happened under the willows. On his neck there was a faint red mark ー it was small, so it would be hard to notice from a distance, but against the paleness of the red-haired youth's skin it stood out rather spectacularly, and in the end Ryu broke the awkward distance the two of them had been maintaining to fidget with the other boy's robe, pulling and shifting the collar to (somewhat) cover the mark. When he pointed it out to the redhead, his cheeks burning as he did so, the latter's own face flushed a deep crimson that made him worry he wouldn't make it back to the castle before he fainted from a fever.

"......."

"......."

Halfway back up the winding steps that made up a portion of the path connecting the capital to the palace, he stopped, remembering why he had initially agreed to the excursion to the capital with Koki anyway. Putting a hand to the front of his robes, he marveled at how the thing hadn't fallen out at all the entire time they were here ー it had been one of his primary concerns about bringing the thing all the way here, no matter how much encouragement his brother gave him. In the end he had relented, only after thinking over the possibility that this would be one of the few chances ー which would only diminish as their situation became more and more grave ー to give the thing to the redhead. They were alone, away from the palace, and, if anything, this would be the perfect time ー it might have been more perfect, he thought while mentally punching himself, had he not gone and made the whole air between them... weird. 

(Contrary to how much he was internally berating himself, however, a part of him realized ー more like knew ー that he didn't really regret it all that much, if at all. However, _pretending_ that he did was somehow keeping his sanity in check, even if he knew it was all a performance only he was seeing.)

"Koki," he called, trying to keep his voice as neutral as possible, "Wait." The redhead turned towards him at the sound, head tilted in an unspoken inquiry, the same as he always did when posing a question without speaking. It was such a natural, common action, and he felt some amount of relief that the boy was still displaying it towards him ー found himself feeling warmed by the fact, even, but he didn't let it show in his face, or else he would find himself blurting out a lot of unnecessary things that would possibly shatter whatever naturalness there was left between the two of them.

Fumbling with the front of his robes, he pulled out the "thing" he had been working on ー the gift he had been unconsciously making with the wine-red haired boy in mind, and hadn't realized until his brother had (without meaning to tease in the slightest) pointed out that it took the shape of the creature Koki seemed most enamored with, something he had learned from him in a fleeting, brief conversation. Koki's eyes widened, surprise and confusion shifting to delight as he took the wooden carving in his hands ー a small wooden piglet, complete with a red bow tied neatly around its neck, painstakingly carved for the past several days he had spent in the castle during his free time.

"You said you thought pigs are cute, so..." He rubbed the back of his, fumbling with his words. "My dad used to make wooden carvings in his spare time and I've been practicing, to copy him, and I was getting out of practice so I thought I'd make it... I mean, it was kind of a whim," he stammered, trying not to let his own face redden, "I didn't... I wasn't really thinking much about it but you said you liked pigs and having a solid concept made it easy for me to..." 

"Thank you," came Koki's voice, crystal clear and cutting through Ryu's stuttered ramblings, "I'll treasure it forever." He smiled, eyes narrowing, and Ryu watched as the upturned corners of his mouth pushed the small beauty mark under his right eye up, under his shining and delighted eyes. The sight was more radiant than any feats of magic he had ever seen performed with the _jiéshi._ It took all his effort not to try and grasp that light in his own hands, instead opting to turn his eyes away, lest he find himself permanently blinded by its brilliance.

"It's not a big deal." he muttered, trying to hide his own delight at having his own gift so well-received. When he got back to the palace, he figured, he owed Takato big time for continually and persistently pushing him to give the damn thing to Koki as soon as the opportunity struck. Of course, he wouldn't mention the... prior events that had led to their situation, for the time being. He didn't need his brother getting overexcited by the prospects of a (he hesitated to call it this, but) budding romance, not when he himself was still disoriented by what had happened between the two of them.

Koki's only response to that was a merry laugh, and Ryu wondered if he would be justified in trying to kiss the other again ー his adversary was certainly making it harder to restrain himself. The mere thought ー that, coupled with the fact that he had actually _thought_ it ー made his face heat up all over again, and he wanted to hold his head in confusion and distress, all the more so when the redhead threw him one last brilliant smile, brighter than the sun's beams itself, making him want to simply _hold_ the other boy, whether it be his hand or his face, and in his mind the version of him he labeled "sensible" was busy pummeling the more instinctive version of him with a _katana._

All he knew for sure was that if any of the people at the castle, whether it be his brother or Koki's two friends or even Kanon herself, saw the small red mark he had left behind on Koki's neck, he would never hear the end of it, and may potentially have to consider using magic to make himself invisible to hide from the embarrassment for at least a month.

* * *

"Hey, aren't those two..."

"Hm? What two?"

"The ones who came from under those giant willow trees over there, don't they look familiar?"

"Where?"

"Over there, you idiotー Ow!"

"The 'idiot' part was unnecessary. Just point them out for us to see."

"Urgh... fine... my bad. See, those two, the ones who are walking past those food stalls. One of 'em has dark brown hair, or black, I can't tell, and the other one has red hair. Dark red, if any of you _legitimately_ need me to clarify _that_ specifically."

"What did I just sayー"

"Weren't they the two brats in the palace you mentioned last week? In the garden?"

"........."

"H...huh? Am I wrong? I thought you said it was a dark-haired kid and some kid with wine-red hair or something..."

"No... nope, you're absolutely right. It _is_ them."

"Holy shit what a coincidence."

"That's not the _point_ you dunce... what the hell are they doing down here?"

"Who cares? It looks like they're probably heading back to the palace, judging from the direction they're going..."

"........"

"Uh, hey, buddy? Where do you think you're going?"

"My back still hurts where I was stabbed."

"Nope! You are _not_ about to jeopardize us all for the sake of your littleー"

" **Enough**."

"........."

"........."

"........."

"Our _leader_ will be here shortly, and we will move according to plan once he does. _Do not_ act on your own, or I assure you, there will be consequences far more drastic than simply the loss of your positions."

".....Fine."

"So, what will we do until then?"

".....We wait. And then, when he arrives..."

".....?"

"We _stage our attack on the capital of Nan Fang_."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Spoiler for chapter*  
> Please, PLEASE keep in mind that this was written by someone who has NO prior knowledge of the art of the kiss. And likely never will, and is perfectly fine with that. I perused SO many of my favorite fic writers works, trying to pick up tips, and discovered the many ways to narrate a kissing scene ー you can range it from simple fluff and pink fuzz to rose-colored eroticism that makes you want to both blush and smile at the same time. Or is that just me being super creepy? (It's just me being super creepy, isn't it...) This was likely very cheesy at some moments, too. Gah, I want to go stick my head in the ground like an ostrich. I'm SORRY that I'm so bad at writing romance. *hides my head in a paper bag* I've no experience I say.... 
> 
> Ahem... ANYWAY, that was my first attempt and BY THE LOVE OF SANTA'S MAGIC TOY BAG I will likely not venture into that again any time soon. Seriously, I was blushing furiously as I wrote. How embarrassing. 
> 
> As always, if you're still reading this, I hope that all your dreams come true and you live out wonderful, long lives. You have no idea how happy I feel seeing the hit counter go up, or when I receive a kudos, and when byullight, the amazing author of Furusato, left a comment two chapters ago... I've never felt so accomplished. Everyone's support is my literal serotonin. It gives me motivation to continue, as tedious and strenuous as writing can become sometimes, especially for long-running fics. So, from the bottom of my heart, thank you so very much, and I hope you continue to read going forward.


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me writing = me slamming my head consistently into the keyboard and hoping that whatever scenes I'm thinking up magically come onto the screen, in the exact wording I imagined. I wish.
> 
> I must admit it's rather a shock to see the number of chapter files I have saved on this computer. A while ago it was like, 10, and suddenly I'm past 20. How?? Time flies.

There were several ways to get hurt. One could accidentally burn themselves touching a hot surface, or could be clumsy with a sharp and pointy object, resulting in an inevitable minor stabbing. There was falling out of a tree you had tried to victoriously climb, and there was running at speeds too fast that halting would yield painful, face-flat-on-the-ground results. Gen could list possibly over a thousand plausible, reasonable methods to harm oneself, and most of them were accidents of some kind. In the realm of accidents, the trick was to never be too startled at the endless possibilities, and the endless ways people could perform acts of sheer stupidity. Watching their newfound companions (a few more than others) he had begun to realize that quite clearly.

Falling flat on your face after slipping off a lamp post, however, was a brand new thing altogether. It was even stranger when it turned out that said person had already tried to climb said lamp post several dozens of times, as made evident by the footprints all over the benches and crates they had dragged into the garden of Lunar Shades, which glowed brilliantly white, like snow fairies watching and mocking their misery. Mostly Takato's misery. They had all lost count of how many times his attempts to climb the post had failed.

What also was failing was their comprehension. _Why_ was the tall man trying to climb the lamp posts? 

On top of that, he had apparently only made it to the top of two, and there were seven in total. In other words, he had gone through this grueling process several times, and it seemed managing to reach the top of _two_ of the accursed things wasn't enough to "get the hang of it", as the man had said, beaming with the force of the sun itself. He was painfully optimistic at times, Gen noted, which was fine and all, until it left Kanade with a pained and apologetic expression, and several faces bearing expressions halfway between amusement and befuddlement. 

Which didn't improve the extreme oddness of the situation.

"Um," Riku, the black-haired boy they had dragged out of bed, his blue fringe sticking out slightly in tufts, raised his hand sheepishly, like a schoolboy with a burning question. "Takato-san, _what_ exactly are you doing?" Next to him, the blonde, Kaiji, was making a disgruntled expression as if he were seriously debating returning to his room and pretending that he hadn't been the one to drag his poor friend out of bed in the first place. Gen remembered their brief, and odd, conversation in the training hall located in the west wing of the palace; Seiichiro had been wearing a very complicated and dark expression after mentioning the _niliu,_ although he himself didn't see the problem. Yes, Kaiji's wording had been problematic, but it couldn't be helped considering _niliu_ wasn't a very commonly-known term, and the concept of a "forsaken child" was rather lost on anyone in Nan Fang, where such tales hadn't met much exposure for the last few decades. 

"That," Aoi, who Takato had fallen on top of earlier, gave the latter a glare that was likely far more capable of burning something than Riku's question. "Is a _very_ good question. Which I asked, several times. And I haven't received an answer that makes _sense._ Not even from you, Suzaku." The burning glare was then redirected towards Kanade, who looked lost in thought, staring up at the lamps with an expression even more complicated than the one Seiichiro had made during their tense _niliu_ conversation. Gen teetered between shoving Aoi ー very discreetly ー into a bush of Lunar Shades and give him a massive, Zhuque-cursed headache, or simply pulling Takato down and demanding he answer the question for Aoi, to avoid any further disrespect and awkward questions at the prince's expense. Seiichiro, for once, however, wasn't making any moves to call out to Kanade ー rather, he was giving the curly-haired man a concerned look, which was tinged with a little something darker that made him wonder what on earth was happening around him. 

It took him a minute, but then he pieced it together ー Seiichiro was probably having a difficult time accepting that, whatever these two had found that sprung them into action, they had done it together, without them. Without _him,_ Kanade's childhood friend. And while Gen couldn't say he wasn't feeling some sort of complicated emotions himself, he was certain that his was far more simple in nature. His senior retainer could deny or try to hide it as much as he wanted; the fact of the matter was that Gen had seen through the other man's facade a very long time ago, and no matter how much he brushed it off of his imagination, he knew what the workings behind those emotions were, and he also knew there was very little he himself could do to help. 

"If it is any consolation," Haru piped in, smiling his cat-like smile, "We haven't exactly been enlightened, either, my small friend."

Aoi quietly put his hand on the dagger which was still, Gen noticed, sheathed at his waist.

"Shut up, Haru," snapped Kanon, who was staring at Takato's back as he slid down yet again, and Gen wondered if she was fighting an internal debate telling her to kick him to death or until he gave them answers. "Takato, for the love of the Four, just _sit down_ and give us a godforsaken freaking explanation that hasn't had about seven hundred important bits of information cut out from it. Or words, for the matter."

"That would be preferable," agreed Riichi, "For I am on a tight schedule as of the moment."

"Doing _what,_ Riichi~?" It sounded like a sneer coming from Haru, but judging from the grin on his face it was meant in friendly jest. If it had been directed at anyone else, Haru may have lost his tongue. There was an eighty percent chance.

"Why, making sure my appearance is just as sharp and elegantly cutting as always!" proclaimed the tutor. To this day, he does not understand how someone could be so endlessly narcissistic and still not sound like a complete slime while doing so. It was one of the many small things that he wondered about, when his mind had time to wander. 

"Right..." came the sigh from Kaiji, and Riku gave his friend a helpless smile.

"Aoi-san," The whisper, barely perceptible by the others and likely only heard by Gen because he was standing right near, came from Gabriel, who had his hand on the mayor's arm. "Please don't pull out your weapon here. There are children. Also, we are facing a very serious crisis and it would be best not to go about murdering our allies."

"I am in full agreement with that statement," Aoi snapped, "But some insults are not so easily forgiven."

Seiichiro, whose face was getting more tired by the second, gave a light cough, striding over to Kanade and placing a hand slowly on the prince's shoulder. The puppy-like man looked up at the touch, smiling in a distracted way, partially indicated by his half-muttered comment of, "Oh, hello, Seiichiro."

"By the gods," muttered Sho, "The prince's head is in the clouds." Gen shot him a withering look loaded with warning, but all the older man did was scrunch his shoulders in response.

"TAKATO." This time, it was definitely not a question, or a thinly veiled demand. It was an outright warning, and Gen marveled at the effectiveness of Kanon's rage ー it was enough to cow a whole group of people older than her. And bigger. She was a petite ball of righteous and continuous rage and power. 

_Her face is pretty, and plenty of guys ー and girls, for the matter ー would fall head over heels for her, just looking at her,_ Takato had once told him, earnestly, which left it hard to tease him to ask if he had been one of those people. It didn't help when Ryu added pointedly, _Sure, so long as she doesn't start cursing them out or yelling at them not to waste her time, or doesn't pull her sword out and start mincing anyone who so much as_ tries _to touch her._

"Hi, Kanon," Takato smiled again, even brighter, and Gen felt a small hint of pity that he always seemed to find himself on the receiving end of the stick when it came to Kanon's wrath. He probably didn't even realize why it was happening to him, a fact so pitiful and sad he almost wanted to cry. At the same time, he could see how this particular trio had worked, with Kanon acting as the leading force, Takato as the heart and soul, and Ryu as the ever-suffering voice of calm (and occasionally irritated) reason. A dynamic that was, in all aspects, chaotic, but worked. 

"No, not 'hi, Kanon'," the girl in question snapped, "An _explanation._ Remember? Like we have _all_ been asking of you for the past several minutes?"

Takato shot Kanade a bewildered look. Kanade shot him one back. There was a beat of silence where they both contemplated one another, leaving everyone else to stand around feeling even more awkward (which seemed impossible but was actually happening) than they already were. Aoi coughed. Riku blinked sleepily. Taichi looked like he was considering cutting down all the lamp posts in the garden to get this over with quick.

"You didn't tell them?" Kanade blinked at the taller man.

"I thought you did."

"Oh. I thought you already did as well."

"Well, I technically did butー"

" **Boys** ," Kanon smiled dangerously. "Perhaps this discussion can wait for another time?" The air dropped several degrees, and Gen became acutely aware of the sword hanging dangerously at her hip. 

(Honestly, didn't these people know any proper etiquette? Who in the name of the gods above carried weapons around casually in someone else's home?)

"Right," Takato nodded, not seeming to read the sudden chill of the air, face oddly serious. "So Kanade and I were chatting, and we found out we both liked acting out kid's novels and story books when we were kidsーman, those days brought back a lot of memories." A pointed cough from Gabriel stopped him before he inevitably started rambling. "Er, sorry. Anyway, we got to the topic of where Kanade's old man might have hidden the letters from Xifang, and we were talking about secret passages and shit, how adventure novels always have that kind of elementーy'know, where the hero pulls a step and ta-daa, there's a secret passageway leading to the treasure. That kind of thing. And then we wondered if the king might've done something like _that_ ーhidden the letters away. So we talked about all the sorts of places this castle had to hide things, and then we got to the topic of this _jiéshi_ garden thing his mom planted when he was a kid," Here, Kanade gave a barely noticeable twitch of his shoulders. It went largely unnoticed, save for by Seiichiro and Gen, and also Takato himself, judging from the concerned look he shot the brunette, to Gen's surprise. "And that's when we started asking, 'why the heck are the lamps in this garden so high?' AND pretty large for the matter, with weird shapes. _If_ the whole 'treasure hunting hiding spot' theory we built is right, those letters we've been tearing through the castle to find might have been lying _here_ all along. Which means maybe there really isn't a secret traitor or spy in the palace, just an abnormal hiding spot we all missed 'cos it was so out of the ordinary." After finishing this all in one breath, the taller Kyogoku gave them all a sunny, self-satisfied grin. "What do you guys think?" Everyone was staring at him, some open-mouthed, some not. Aoi's dagger had been sheathed, Gabriel's hand was off the shorter man's sleeve, and Riku no longer looked half-asleep.

"I think," Kanon gave the garden a once-over, eyes narrowed thoughtfully. "If your theory is right, we should simply bring down the whole lamps so we can investigate them all at once."

"That won't work," Kanade told her apologetically, indicating two glowing dishes which Gen hadn't made note of before. "Takato-san told me that there was an abnormally high concentration of magic radiating off these _jiéshi,_ and it would be too dangerous to expose them all to each other all at once. We were taking this 'one at a time' approach in hopes that separating them from their casings and diluting them by absorbing some of the magic would decrease their potency. So far, it has worked, but I fear it won't do much if we try to lower them all at the exact same moment."

"Hence the display," sighed Seiichiro, staring pityingly at Takato, who was swiping at the bottom of the lamp in attempts to loosen it from the base's hold. "And there was no other more... effective way of transferring them to the ground?"

"If you know," groaned the tall man, who had toppled over after reaching out too high, "I am all ears. And sores. But mostly ears."

"I'll switch with you, Takato-san," Kanade stood, neatly brushing off the small bit of dirt clinging to his robes. "My legs were becoming cramped from sitting in that position for so long anyhow."

"Wait, you don't have toーKanade-sama, I'll do it." Gen hurriedly rushed forward, trying to stop the young prince. However, the brunette brushed off his attempts, shaking his head to tell him it was alright. But imagining Kanade trying to reach those precariously tall lamps, where even Takato, likely the tallest of them all (or one of the tallest, he was sure), had failed, he didn't want to see the lithe man go through the same pains. 

"Hold on," Haru piped up, "Before we all try and take turns going up and down these thingsーdid anyone of you ever try and find a mechanism to lower them? They're shaped awfully funny, those bases. Aren't weird little gimmicks Nan Fang's specialty?"

Sho blinked. "I thought it was the colorful aesthetics."

Taichi snorted. "Nah, it's their delicious cuisine."

Kanon shoved the two men aside, Riichi assisting without a single word of comment. "So what you are suggesting," she asked, looking at Haru, "Is that these lamps are designed with some hidden trick in mind?"

"Exactly what I am suggesting, Ms. Kanon." The aloof man gave a gentlemanly mock bow. 

"Move," This came abruptly from Aoi, who shoved Takato aside as he approached the lamp, examining it with a murderous expression that seemed to suggest it had done him some terrible, unforgivable offense in the past, and was still a source of great loathing for him even to this day. Gen was tempted to make a sarcastic quip regarding that, but held his tongue, for the better parts of him warned him against the dangers of starting a fight here, not when Kanade and Takato seemed so sure of themselves that they had found a wonderful clue, an answer that made their so-far fruitless searches worthwhile. "I'm no engineer or blacksmith, but I have studied a great deal on the workings of Nan Fang mechanisms, and I've worked with them in the past."

"Including things with hidden mechanisms?" Kaiji raised an eyebrow.

"Including things with hidden mechanisms." Aoi parroted back, voice serious. "There are several of those in the south, enough to surprise you. You would be shocked to discover just how complicated some of the things you use on the daily actually are, brat." The harsh words were accentuated by a softer tone, like that of Riichi whenever he had been repeating the explanations for a particularly hard topic in their lessons as children. Even when he hadn't _sounded_ particularly nice, the tutor's words had never harbored any malice towards his students, instead adopting a strict tone worlds apart from his normal airy narcissism, proving his experience and talents as a teacher. 

The garden went silent save for the sounds of Aoi tinkering with the lamp post, lightly tapping some parts of it with his dagger. At one point, he made a small noise of impressed exclamation, but when asked what he had found he responded vaguely, and Gen wagered he was likely unsure what it was he was looking at. They all sat down, patient but anticipating, and at one point Gabriel vanished and then reappeared, pushing a tea cart loaded with pots of sweet smelling teas and crisp _senbei_ crackers, a pleasant shade of dark brown and tasting of just the right amount of soy. Kanade silently offered Aoi a cup of tea and a cracker, and the mayorーa rarity for himーoffered a light word of thanks before taking the proffered snack without protest, or at least one snarky comment. Seiichiro had also gone to examine another lamp, and Haru's trio, accompanied by Riichi, were giving a third a thorough inspection. Riku was carrying a cup for Takato, who was splayed out, seemingly exhausted. Kaiji was nibbling lightly on a _senbei_ cracker, eyes fixed on one of the lamps, while Kanon was staring down intently at the two _jiéshi_ stones sitting snugly in their separate plates, casting twin glows of light upon her visage. 

"Found it!" The excited exclamation was so elated and out of place that, for a fraction of a second, no one could pin down who had shouted it. One by one their eyes turned toward Aoi, whose face was steadily turning red with embarrassment for his outburst, and Gen fought back the laughter bubbling up in his stomach. 

Kanade rushed next to him, bringing his face inches away from Aoi's to have a look at what the latter had discovered. The former didn't seem to think much of his close proximity, but the mayor shot him an irritated look at the lack of respect he seemed to have for personal space (which Kanade certainly _did_ have, under normal circumstances). Everyone hurried over, and Aoi pointed to a small set of grooves that lined the post, so thin and barely slivers in the grayish, jade-colored stone that they would be hard to perceive with the naked eye. 

"These things," Aoi said, tapping the deep, thin crevices, which resembled the silk of a spider in their thinness. "I've seen them before. Some of the port towns in Nan Fang utilize them to raise flags and the like, for sailors who might've ventured too far out to sea. There's a certain way to operate them so you can lower and raise whatever it is you need from one end to another, but because the mechanism is hard to create in most other things, it has yet to replace the older working models of similar contraptions, such as that for a well. Usually there's a handle that would trigger the mechanism and make it start rotating the whole thing to bring whatever it is they need toーin this case the lampーup and down, but I'm not really seeing that here..."

Riichi brought his face closer, examining the posts with careful scrutiny. His fingers traced themselves over the stone, before traveling downwards, towards the very base of the lamp post, hands running over every inch of the stone slowly, determined not to miss a single detail. The stone was engraved, old and weathered in places, and Gen worried that the mechanism might be broken, or there would be no handle to show for it. Unable to withstand simply just milling about, wringing his hands, he wandered to another lamp, carefully beginning his own thorough inspection of the post. Around him, he could feel the others do the same.

He didn't know how long they had been continuing until his fingers hit something, a raise in the stone, so slight that it seemed no more than an insignificant bump of the stone, a funny spot that hadn't been shaped down properly. If he had been touching a normal rock, it would have gone completely unnoticedーthat was how insignificant it was. Running it over and over with his hands, he gave it a small push. When nothing happened, he tried shifting it from the side. At first the raise made no movement, but then, just as he had despaired that it had been a trick of his hands, he felt the bump _shift,_ ever so slightly, to the side, resulting in a 'click' noise. Even the noise it made, he thought in the corner of his mind, was small and unnoticeable.

Above him he heard a steady rattling noise and watched in open-mouthed awe as the lamp suddenly seemed to shift out of its position, triggered by the sudden start of the mechanism. With pained creaking noises indicating it was of rather old make, the lamp began to slowly descend down the pole, and it wasn't until it was halfway down did Gen notice there were grooves all across the lamp itself, allowing for it to be moved downwards on the pole, the inner workings of the contraption laced throughout the entire body of the lamp. With a shuddering groan the lamp stopped, a few centimetres above the ground, hovering, attached to the post at the side, where the grooves also ran. The _jiéshi_ glowed eerily bright and he found himself drawn to its beauty, carefully bringing his face forward, ignoring the sting of his eyes. He had never been too close in contact with the "God's stones"ーNan Fang had no real need of them nowadays, he recalled, half mesmerized. 

A sudden force yanked him back abruptly, face suddenly reeling upwards towards the sky, the _jiéshi_ now completely out of sight. Landing on his back in the grass, he gazed dazedly up into the face of Takato, who was apologetically hovering over him, looking torn between panic and embarrassment. When the initial dizziness of the sudden movement settled, he realized that it had been the older Kyogoku brother who had pulled him backwards.

"Sorry, man," Takato offered Gen his hand, which the retainer dazedly accepted, head still reeling with confusion. "It's just... it's not safe to get too close to raw _jiéshi_ like that. Most of the stuff you've seen us use up until now is refined, so it's safe for human exposure. This stuff isn't one hundred percent pureーat least I don't _think_ it isーbut it's still not refined enough that you can touch it unguarded. Wait 'till Kanade or Iーor Kanon I guess, since she's here tooーrelease some of the magic energy in it; that way it'll be safer to put out in the open, like those other two." He jerked a thumb at the two plates, still radiating a heavenly light. 

"You can use magic?" Aoi glanced over at Kanade in surprise, one eyebrow raised.

"Only when it is necessary, and I'm not nearly as well-versed in it as Takato-san and his brother, or Kanon-san," Kanade gave a small smile with a hint of self-deprecation. "After all, there was, until now, very little need of it in Nan Fang. But I can manage magic, if that is what you are asking."

Pulling himself up, mumbling thanks, Gen wrote himself a small mental reminder to never engage Takato in a purely physical fight. He was reasonably certain that the perpetually wide-hearted and kind man's strength was probably powerful enough to send him crashing into the ground with more than just a few bruises to show for it.

As these thoughts ran ragged through his battered mind, Kanon passed by him to gingerly nudge open the glass casing of the lamp's sides, carefully swinging the small doors open with slow trepidation. Behind her stood Kanade, staring worriedly down at him, and he gave the prince a wide smile to indicate that all was well, despite having just been dragged on his back and slamming his head rather magnificently against the ground. Giving his spinning head a moment of rest, he watched with a half-lidded eyes as Kanade pulled out thin, black metal tongs. _Where_ he had managed to procure such an item was a complete mystery, but nonetheless Gen saw they were proving quite useful in the extraction process of the throbbing stone, which pulsed with a light both magnetic and intense, the sort that one instinctively knew screamed danger but also radiated a hypnotic beauty that compelled those it snared to dare to come closer. 

Turning his face away from the throbbing light, he covered his eyes with a hand in resistance to the glareーit seemed almost angry, resentful; from the sides he could see the others attempting the same, faces all scrunched up at the divine glow the stone threw off, threatening to blind them all.

Threateningーthat was what it was, he thought numbly. The stone pulsed and glowed, beautiful on all accounts, something too holy and divine to merely be looked upon. But something about that glare screamed anger and resentment. It snarled and hissed its fury at them, throwing off the glow with a spite almost poisonous.

For a second the _jiéshi_ seemed almost an entire creature with a will of its own, furious and spitting. Cornered and threatened. Angry.

* * *

Takato had not been exaggerating when he had warned them all, Kanon thought, furrowing her brow as she slowly began to channel her abilities into cutting off a few of the streams of magic the stone was radiating. There were several and immediately she knew this was not a _jiéshi_ that had been properly refined, not enough. It was a miracle that they had been transferred here, into those lamps, in the first place, not with how menacingly they threw their threads of magic about, all but perfectly still in sync with the threads of nature's own aura, which radiated magic inexplicable and uncontrollable to mankind. Their host, the _jiéshi_ was the only thing connecting them to humanity, and in this case it was not an equal relationship built on mutual understanding. It was a _gift,_ and one that could burn them away just as easily if they became too arrogant with it. Mankind had been granted a type of power, but it paled to the reality of the true and natural world, which teemed with more spiritual energy than they could possibly comprehend. It was a message of benevolence, but it was also a warning: know your place. Seek not the higher powers the gods did not bestow you. Take what you must, and as little of it as possible, and be grateful for the blessing. In many ways it was the sort of message that Kanon would decidedly _not_ follow, but in the face of the earth itself, it was doubtless a crystal clear truth.

Beside her Kanade was trying to help as well, a bead of sweat traveling down his finely shaped face, and she was reminded that he and Takato had already gone through this ordeal _twice._ Behind them Takato was trying to help, but he was also distracted with warning the others not to open the lamps just yet; they had managed to find the mechanism that triggered the pulley as well, meaning it was only a matter of time before the others had to be checked. Around her she could feel the air slowly heat up, pulsing and writhing like a cornered beast, and it took her all her best efforts not to lose her grip on the streams. Royals were really on a whole other level, she thought grimly, staring at Kanade from the corner of her eyeーthis would mark his third effort with the accursed things; normal mages, even some of the more powerful ones, would have dropped in sheer exhaustion after the first try. It was taking all her willpower not to release the threads she had gathered, tossing them off into the most mundane of spells: gusts blown upward, rippling water tossed into the flowers, a small spark of light between her fingers. The prince seemed to be gathering his efforts into seemingly returning the threads completely to nature and severing all contact they had with the stone, but the feat was considerably tiring, and if she wanted to be of further use with their remaining stones then it was best she use the least energy-consuming method she knew. In the corner of her mind she screamed for Ryu, wondering where in the blazes he had gotten himself off to, before remembering they had sent him off on a well-earned break, along with that redhead she was ninety percent sure he fancied. 

"Kanon-san," Kanade hissed between his teeth, "How much further can you go?" His already pale face was even paler now, forehead glittering with perspiration, eyes swimming as he struggled to stay up. 

"I'm alright. I can keep going," she responded, forcing the words out through gritted teeth. Mustering all the power left in her lungs, she shouted out, "Takato! How much further?!" Being the furthest, he was likely in a better position to get a reading on how much more magic needed to be severed from the stone. That, as well as his experience growing up in a refinery.

"A little more!" he shouted back, voice echoing across the garden. She could hear pain and exhaustion in his tone, but even still he wrung out a voice loud enough to reach them, as he always did, no matter what. "Just a little more and it should be alright!"

The air throbbed, the stone's light writhing in throes of what could be perceived as agony, if stones felt such a thing. For a second she had a very real and heart-stopping vision of a carnal beast baring its fangs and claws at her, screaming with a raw fury, eyes burning with flames of blood-red hatred. Then the illusion was gone as quickly as it came; the air around them seemed to snap, and she slumped over, exhausted, chest heaving as she struggled to catch her breath. Beside her Kanade was coughing, the sounds agonizing, and she felt a rush of air as Seiichiro and Gen both collectively overcame their shock and rushed to the fallen prince, supporting him from either side. She felt a large hand grab her shoulder reassuringly, and she looked up to see, to her surprise, Haru and his companions giving her reassuring smiles, all tinged with worry that they desperately tried to hideーa fact that surprised her even more. Takato was leaning slightly on the taller of the two younger boys, Riku, and Kaiji was fluttering by his side, ready to catch the unsteady man in case he stumbled. Riichi knelt by her and offered her a cloth; there were beads of sweat on her own face, she realized, and her hair was falling across her face, clinging to her clammy cheeks. Taking the proffered cloth and mumbling her thanks, she pressed it to her face, trying to calm the furious beating of her heart. Aoi had moved over to where Kanade was, gingerly taking the tongs from the taller brunette, and Gabriel ran over with another plate in hand, likely pulled off from the tea cart. 

"A pity about your fine dishes, Suzaku," came the biting comment, although there was no poison in its tone. Aoi slowly transferred the now-gently glowing _jiéshi_ onto the plate, before turning back to the prince, tongs still in hand. "But I suppose so long as they don't break, you will be able to utilize them again. They might one day spark and suddenly shoot lightning out of the blue, however."

Kanade laughed, leaning against Seiichiro with his eyes half closed. "I highly doubt it will work that way," he responded, tone light, "But if you are so curious to find out, I would be happy to present them to you as souvenirs to remind you of your time here." Takato, who had hobbled over, barked a laugh, which was shared between Riku and Kaiji, traveling to the rest of them in a manner of seconds.

It wasn't a scene she had ever imagined herself inーthe laughter of several people with the same goal in mind enjoying a respite together, a good joke or a quip. She hadn't ever seen light bickering as a privilege, only nonsense that people like Ryu had dragged her unwittingly into. Even as she had traveled with the Kyogoku brothers, a part of her had told herself insistently that this was a business partnership and nothing more; it _could_ be nothing more, once their goals had been reached and everything had been resolved. As painful as it was to admit, she had been afraid it would be.

But standing (slumped over, more like) here now, her fears suddenly seemed trivial and silly. What had it been she had feared? If it had been nothing more than a business partnership from the start, she wouldn't have felt any concern whatsoever. Her concerns had, paradoxically, solidified the fact that, like it or not, the two had become her companions in her quest. And so had, she realized, everyone here. The prince and his retainers, the young mayor and his assistant, the two brothers, the oddball bards, the even odder tutor, the duo of boys with contrasting colors that compliment the other and,

The (supposedly) forsaken child. The boy with the beautifully red hair and the rather unfocused eyes, who Ryu seemed completely enamored with, although, as far as she was concerned, neither seemed aware of it.

Shaking her head, Kanon shooed away those thoughts, closing her eyes and trying to allow herself to soak in the comforts of companionship for a moment longer. Such problems could wait, she thought. Right now, she wanted to focus on the issue at hand.

"Were..." Kanade looked up, the color of his face returning slowly, a healthy flush slowly spreading across his face once more. "Were the documents in there?" He winced, and Kanon prayed that they wereーshe didn't think the tall brunette would be able to endure another round of this.

There were some rustling noises, the clinking of stone, as Riichi carefully examined the contents of the lamp. As he did, the rest of them waited with bated breath, praying.

Riichi turned towards all of them in a rather dramatic fashion, and Kanon felt her spirits sink at the serious expression on the man's face. Until she saw him lift his hand.

"Well, my friends," announced the royal tutor with a dramatic flourish, hands holding a stack of parchments. "It seems our long-anticipated treasure was indeed here all along."

* * *

The letters had not been what any of them had been expecting. Or rather, they did, to some extent, but it was far more complicated, Takato realized, then matters had originally suggested. Or anything they had imagined as a result.

_To the esteemed Crimson monarch, His Majesty of Nan Fang,_

_As you are aware, and as stated in our previous letters, our illustrious kingdom of Xifang currently stands on weathering ropes, for our situation with the_ jiéshi _grows steadily worse by the day. In the previous reports we shared, we told you that our research was making some steadfast progress, but nowadays it is to little avail. We hope to improve the situation through a few new methods a new benefactor of ours has suggested, although I, as a person, must confess that their motives and true nature elude me. But we have little to go on, and hope is waning in the people by the hour. In order to maintain this establishment we have had no choice but to turn to that which they offer. But I worry, day and night, whether I have made the right choice. There is dissent, I know for sure, but there always has been, I suppose, since I took the throne. It was not a choice I made lightly, I assure you. I understand you were reluctant to have anything to do with us, but by Baihu herself I swear that everything I do is for the sake of this kingdom and all the others. Surely you must see that._

_The methods I mentioned earlier are, to be rather honest, not very favorable in my eyes. Hence, I must ask you to read this next part with great caution, for these are words I should not write so lightly, and would normally scorn myself for putting on paper for another to lay eyes on. But you have proved to be of superb and reliable counsel, and I feel no one in my kingdom could so easily understand my fears._

_What this stranger suggests is cruel. A necessity, I understand, but when I see what the results yield, I wish to run myself through with my own blade several times over. There are things that happen in the mines, monstrous things, and although I myself have never quite laid eyes on it I know that this benefactor has no heart, for if he possessed one he would not suggest such cruelty. I cannot describe it; it is not a matter of disclosure. I simply do not understand what it is I saw. I lack the words, for I am left speechless by what it is I bore witness to._

_He said he would start small. A few sacrifices would be made, a few people would vanish. And I believed him. I have never felt like such a fool. Yet there are results, and there are gains. My people seem happier. So what is right?_

_Fighting and power is the way of Xifang. I rose to the throne using those very ways. But this is a cruelty that precedes such principles, such methods. Yet I know not of any other way to save the kingdom I claimed my own, when I did not yet realize we were standing in a castle of crumbling ash._

_Signed by the monarch of Opal, His Majesty of Xifang_

"These aren't..." breathed Kanon, eyes widened, "These aren't threats at all. This is... this sounds like a _friendly_ letter, almost. Most of these are: here the Xifang monarch thanks the Nan Fang monarch for sending in a small shipment of _jiéshi_ to keep them satisfied for the time being, to aid with their research. They don't... sound threatening in the slightest." She bit her lip. "So why...?"

Haru frowned down at some of the letters he was reading, before passing them to everyone else. "I wouldn't say that just yet, little miss." 

_To the esteemed Crimson monarch, His Majesty of Nan Fang,_

_It seems you have continued to ignore our previous letters, so I will make this blunt._

_Allow us inspection of your_ jiéshi _supply, or provide us with proof that you are not the culprit responsible for its continued disappearance. We do not wish to engage in war, but with the suffering of our people, my council and I are prepared to take as many drastic actions as necessary to save Xifang. Even if this comes at your expense, we are prepared to take full responsibility and shoulder the consequences. We have already secured the innocence of our neighbors in the north, and our allies in the east have no need to share with us untruths. If you do not act, there will be retaliation far more severe than you could ever hope to expect. This is the last of several warnings._

"What the hell?" muttered Takato, scrunching up his face. "This sounds like a completely different person than the guy from the last few letters."

"Maybe they are," murmured Riku, holding up the papers they had already read. "Look, the handwriting on some of these differ. It looks like two different people have been sending the king letters, and judging from what they wrote both of them seem to be on polar ends of the spectrum with how they view Nan Fang's involvement with this." The tall youth blinked as if the seriousness of his own tone had startled him. Kaiji said nothing, instead opting to continue to squint at the letters with a furrowed brow, which grew deeper as his eyes continued to move, tracing over the lines on the paper.

The letter continued:

_As stated in previous responses, we are not inclined to disclose the contents of our research, nor do we find it necessary to. We are not asking for your direct involvement; we only ask for you to prove your kingdom's innocence in this madness, so that we may proceed with our plans to solve this problem that plagues all of us severely. I understand that the previous monarch had been sending you letters of a similar nature in the past, although, judging from the responses we have received thus far from you, they left a rather poor impression of the proposition that had been put in place. While I see no need of justification, I would like to make clear that everything that happens during this quest of ours to find our own answers and solutions will one day be worth the grueling and painful effort many provided. We are not asking you to join that effort, merely to assist in the smallest of ways, so that it may proceed smoothly and lessen the time spent suffering as we wait for a miracle._

"They're _all_ like this," muttered Aoi, a note of tensionーand a very small one of fearーcreeping into his voice. "The previous sender gave the impression of one beseeching for advice, but _this_ personーthey have a tenacity and a forcefulness that startles me. Quite frankly, I'm shocked any monarch, presuming that it is Xifang's monarch writing this, would ever dare to sound so confrontational during times of supposed peace."

Takato had a brief flashback to when they had first gathered in the king's study, under the watchful eyes of the sun shining through the windows, while he and Kanon and Ryu had each taken turns sharing everything they knewーevery reason they were there. He remembered Aoi bringing up the politics of Xifang, how no one seemed to know who the true monarch was anymore recently, and how there were these so-called political factions that divided the kingdom into even smaller bubbles on its own. At the time he had only thought that the mention of the confusion with monarchs was a piece of proof that served to underline the dire nature of the Opal Kingdom's leadership situationーnever had he imagined it would come back like this, in the shape of two sets of letters written in two different hands, one tired and ringing with self-doubt, the other brimming with righteous fury and hostility. 

"If I'm guessing correctly," he finally said, because it seemed no one else (at least, no one else who had been present for and remembered that conversation) was going to and it usually fell upon him to do these things. "One of the senders was either the previous or one of the previous monarchs. Right? 'Cos the one right _now_ is the one who's all pissed at Nan Fang for not 'answering their letters' appropriatelyーor not at all, I guessーso it must mean that whoever wrote this... _other_ set of letters had a different agenda in mind, and that didn't involve making an enemy of the south."

"Indeed," Kanade nodded, his voice low and hard to read. "I fear you may be right, Takato-san; these two sets of letters differ by far too much to simply be just a shift in tone. And of course, as Riku mentioned, the handwriting on either set is too different from one another to be the same person. You can only falsify your hand by so much." His words made Takato wonder if the young prince was speaking from experience, and for a split second he felt a tingle of boyish excitement at the flitting image he hadーKanade tracing over the words of someone else, writing messages pretending they were from another; it was a common boy's prank when he was a kid, and the idea of the young brunette enjoying the same fun made him feel rather gratified and happy. 

"So... what?" Kaiji finally managed, his voice slightly strangled in his throat. "The previous monarchーthe doubtful senderーwas getting advice from our king? And when the throne got taken by someone else, that new person was completely different in how they viewed Crimson?"

"Something to that extent, yes," Gabriel nodded vigorously, "And I can hazard a guess to how 'previous' our previous monarch isーI gather they're not even a few generations apart."

"Oh?" Sho shot the bespectacled blonde a raised eyebrow. "Do tell us what brought this on."

"The timing," was the simplistic reply. "Think a little longer on it, sir; the kingdom of Xifang only recently underwent yet another change in the throneーabout a year and some ago, if I recall correctly. But the one before that ruled for some yearsーaround four or five in totalーbefore they were overthrown. Kanon-san said that Xifang had been dealing with their shortage for longer than Dongfangーwhich had been suffering for two yearsーso I imagine the problem must have been around for quite some time. But I can't imagine that the problem started for Xifang _so_ much sooner than it had for Beifang or Dongfang; it would be logical to conclude that, even as the first to suffer, Xifang has not been dealing with this problem for as long as these letters may suggest."

"In other words," Haru heaved a massive sigh, letting out a breath like he was releasing water from a large crack in a bucket. Not pleasant, and not very happy that he had cracked the bucket, but massively tired and perhaps slightly apprehensive too, if Takato was reading his emotions right. "It would be perfectly plausible that the current monarch of Xifang is the one making these absurd demands of us, while their predecessor sought our aid and counsel."

Next to Kanade, Gen was glowering at the papers resentfully, as if he wished to set them all on fire with the sheer force of his glare. Seiichiro was shooting Kanade inconspicuous looks of concern, which went unnoticed by the latterーhis eyes were practically glued to the paper in his hand, his face twisted into an expression Takato couldn't quite name; it was something akin to anger, but much more complicated than that. There were other emotions too, all jumbled together into an absurd mix that was impossible to pick apart from an outsider's standpoint. 

Aoi's face was positively livid as he muttered, "Of all the stupidー does this person realize how absolutely _ridiculous_ they are being? I understand matters with those accursed _jiéshi_ are much more complex than any other political matter, but did they honestly think sending us _threats_ was going to yield any positive results?" Practically spitting out the words, he thrust the letters out towards Haru and his companions, who had been craning their necks to peer over the shoulders of the others in order to read them, the motion so furious and dramatic it seemed the young mayor was suggesting he couldn't bear to look at their contents a moment longer. Takato sympathized with himーhe really did. It, as Aoi said, made such little _sense_ in his mind, and something told him they weren't far off in that assumption. _Something_ was missing here, some vital or important piece of informationーthe key to this locked chest, the hint to this riddle. He felt like it was making itself glaringly obvious, and yet no matter how much he tried to grasp for even a trace of a guess he came up empty, hands full of smoke that he had sworn was gold. 

Great. Now he was making clever metaphors like a poet of the old age. He was beginning to wonder if sooner or later he would witness Kanon profess she had a crush on someone, or hear one of his new friends claim they were actually a fairy, and proceed to show them their hidden tail or pointy ears. 

"Don't you think it's tooーI don't knowー _abrupt?_ " Kaiji moved only his eyes towards his friend before shifting their line of focus to each of them in turn, finally settling on Kanade, who was to his right, across from him. "I get that they're different people but wouldn't you think the hostility _itself_ is just too...unprecedented? Kinda out of the blue? It's almost as if they're mad at _us,_ and not just because they're assuming things. From the way these letters are written, it's almost as if their complete lack of respect and their anger is justified, and the whole thing with the stones is sort of a..." Stumbling for words, the blonde closed his eyes for a brief moment. Takato imagined his thoughts rearranging themselves like puzzle pieces, trying to create a layout that all would see and understand. A picture drawn where there had once been a jumble. "It's like they had a reason to be upset at us, which made them more mad and suspicious, which is why they're...they're writing something like _this,_ using this tone. Like they knowーor think they knowーwe can't be trusted in an amicable relationship." 

"Do you reckon there's something like that, then?" Riku asked, his voice barely a murmur, hesitant. "Something that made them angry at us from the beginning?"

"If there was," Haru frowned, "Then we wouldn't know. It might be in the king's replies, but unfortunately Xifang has their hands on those."

"Yes, but what on earth could possibly make them thinkー" Riichi started, before his words were abruptly cut off by the faint but sure sound of a noise not a single one of them had expected to hear at all.

Years of experience in a town where magic stones radiated intense energy as they were refined and transported for human use had familiarized Takato to a myriad of unpleasant sounds: the high pitched whine of hissing and spitting magic as it crackled viciously; the earsplitting shriek of carts carried in an out of the gaping maws that were the caves; the shouts of miners as they made their rounds, dressed in gear designed to protect them from the pure energy radiating off of the raw _jiéshi;_ the sounds of explosives, which were sometimes used to create new openings, so long as the area was deemed stable enough to attempt so. It wouldn't do to go blowing up one portion of a cave only to set another crumbling down on whoever was working there. The distinctive sounds of explosives had always scared Ryu when he was small (although he refused to admit or acknowledge it) and it scared his younger brother and sister even now, especially during the early mornings. It was a sound he hadn't heard in a while, which might explain why his reaction to it had been so delayed.

The sounds were faint, but they were definitely those of explosives. They sounded far off, yet their distinctness indicated they were too close. 

But the castle was quiet, save for the people inside, who had all stopped and were staring off into different directions, all of them confused by the sudden noise. It was too out of place, too out of the blue. 

Too _soon._

"The capital," Kanade shot to his feet, face turning whiter than snow on a cold winter's day. "That came from the capital."

As if they had been waiting for those words, the air was suddenly filled with the sounds of screaming. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ALRIGHT I finally got this far. Here we goooooo! Thing are going to start picking up, I promise. No more reveals with no action! Things are gonna get more exciting, I swear! (I hope. Please don't start whaling on me like a pinata if this turns out not to be the case...)
> 
> This chapter took a little longer than I thought, but it wasn't as long as I thought it would be either, whoops. Oh well. Next time. *insert face of determination here*
> 
> As always, thank you very much for reading, and have an absolutely wonderful day.


	22. Chapter 22

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shit hits the fan and Xifang proves how good they are at sneak attacks. Who knew ambushes could be so explosive? Not Nan Fang, that was for sure.

_The old blacksmith in townーreally, the_ only _one in their corner of townーturned out to be relatively kind despite all appearances. When Kaiji had described the man to him, the blonde's vivid (and dramatic) descriptions had brought to mind images of a bear of a man, large and lumbering, with bulging arms and a face so stern it would reduce children to tears. Kaiji gave a very,_ very _vivid description of the splendor that was the man's scars, which he claimed crisscrossed the man's arms and face, giving him the grizzled appearance of a veteran warrior, tired of wielding weapons in combat. And who knows, his friend had added with a sly look in his eyes, perhaps he very well was just thatーa former soldier who had turned to making weapons rather than wielding them._

_Riku, who had been listening with an expression of bemusement, gave his childhood friend a light smack over the head. "Don't say such things", he had scolded, gesturing at Koki. "He'll think those silly rumors are real." Kaiji had rubbed his head, looking miffed at him for spoiling his fun._

_The man Koki was looking at now, as he peered over the worn and rusted piece of metal scrap the redhead had brought him,_ did _sort of match Kaiji's wild descriptions. But the scars he held were not so numerous and suggested years of experience and growth in front of a forge rather than marks of battle. He did have a fearsome look about him, but it was rather hard to be terrified of a man who liked to decorate his front door with a small arrangement of flowers for his young niece, and did so with little embarrassment. His voice was low and would certainly be terrifying if he so decided to sound threatening, but he always spoke with a soft infliction, particularly around young children. Looking at him, Koki felt rather stupid for actually having taken Kaiji seriously, even if it had only been for a brief moment._

 _However, the old blacksmith's face was currently scrunched up in deep thought as he stared down at the weapon Koki had brought with him. The metal was so rusted, he had wrapped it several times in a thick cloth for fear he would cut himself and die right then and there of whatever diseases visited themselves upon whoever cut their hands on decaying metals. Owing partially to his amnesia, of course, he couldn't remember what or why he had the thing; however, the metal was so rusted and worn, as dead as inanimate weapons could get, he was pretty sure that even if he_ did _have his memories, he still wouldn't know what it was he was holding. The size suggested a long dagger, but the shape reminded him of the_ katanas _he sometimes saw the town's guards equipped with._

_It would be hard to fix, the old blacksmith had warned him. It might even be impossible. And on the slim chance he managed to recreate its shape, he would have to make some adjustments (mostly minor, but largely necessary) to the weapon as a whole so it wouldn't crumble to pieces as he did so. It would be faster to simply purchase a new weapon, although the elderly man didn't seem very inclined to hand any of the weapons in his shop to a small child._

_Koki didn't know_ why _he had wanted the blade to be fixed, only that some part of him was attached to the scrap in his pouch, the only thing he owned. Even without his memories being in his mind like they were supposed to, he felt the presence of physical keepsakes was a fair substituteーthey eased some of that emptiness, whispering to him that there was a "before" for him; that he had existed somewhereーperhaps far, perhaps closeーand that he was a_ person _with an identity and a past. He wasn't a nameless being dropped from who-knows-where into an abandoned house, weathering from its continued exposure to the whims of nature with no proper human care, and he wasn't simply an "amnesiac". He was also whoever he had been before, or at the very least, he had proof that he_ had _been someone, before all this._

 _So, no, even if buying a new weapon were more sensible, he couldn't bear to part with the blade. If practical use were on his mind, it wouldn't be a debate, but this wasn't a question of whether he wanted a good weapon or not. If he really had, he would have waited until he was older, when it wouldn't be as off for him to be perusing the racks of a weapons shop or a smith's forge. But he was here because he wanted_ this _blade, nothing more. And if it meant he had to carry around a rusted scrap of metal and risk the chance of getting an infectious disease he still had no name for to this day, then so be it. He could live with the odds. He could carry around a large blanket wrapping it in layers if he had to._

_When Koki very clearly articulated this (or as best as a small child could manage), the elderly blacksmith only sighed and scratched his head._

_Normally, the towering man told him, this would have cost Koki a hefty sum and more. But, as a service and as a challenge to himself, just this once, he would try and fix it for no charge. While grateful, the redhead had been confused by the man's decision. However, all he received to his befuddlement was an enigmatic and kind smile._

_After several weeks, with Koki visiting the forge now and then, slipping off from under the eyes of his two best friends, the blade came out complete. The blacksmith had tried to recreate the design of the blade to a T, and while some of the finer details on the blade had been impossible to restore, the end result was beautiful and took his breath away. The blade shone a deep and bright silver, throwing off light from the fires of the forge and later from the glare of the sun. The hilt was made of simple wood, but there were intricate carvings in there that reminded him of the illustrations of clouds in the scrolls Kaiji's grandmother sometimes showed them, and it made him feel all the more attached to the weapon he cradled in his hands. His fingers could only grasp the hilt awkwardly, and he would later use a silk scarf in place of a sheath. The blade's edge had been slightly bluntedーthe blacksmith claimed that choice had been made solely because it made the recreation of the metal's shape in the forge easier, and while Koki was not inclined to disagree with him, he also suspected that it was a safety precaution for his sake. Struck by an overwhelming sense of gratitude, he could only bow his head to the elderly man, over and over, until he thought he'd seen more of the ground in a single day than for the entirety of a normal week. Carrying the_ tanto _bladeーfor that was what it was called, the blacksmith told himーhome, he began to keep it with him wherever he went, a good luck charm of sorts, something that made him feel ever so slightly more secure and grounded. He sometimes imagined himself practicing with the bladeーperhaps, one day, he would be able to use it to protect his friends for a change, rather than the other way around. The thought came to him unbidden, and he tried to shake off his embarrassment by swiping the air meaninglessly a few times._

 _For several years, he never used the_ tanto _blade_ _ーnever unsheathed it in the presence of anyone but himselfーand he had reckoned that it would always remain that way. To him, the weapon was a charm of protection, like the seals he sometimes saw in shrines designed to keep evil spirits and misfortune at bay. For several years, the image of him using it remained nothing more than a pipe fantasy._

 _For several years, he never imagined that one day,_ he _of all people would actually be protecting someone._

* * *

Koki hadn't ever heard an explosive before, but somewhere in the back of his mind he found himself likening them to fireworks, which he had seen several times over the course of his life with Kaiji and Riku. Fireworks were pretty, setting off hues of reds and golds and greens and bluesーthey blossomed with a myriad of the most wonderful colors and shone brightly and proudly in the dark night sky, their only competition the glowing stars which blanketed the infinite void of black above. Even if their beauty was fleeting, and came at the price of being obnoxiously loud, he admired their striking colors and flashiness, which seemed to beーin his eyesーa declaration of sorts, a long call for all to pay witness to their moment of glory. Next to those millions of shining lights, he found those giant blossoms which only shone their brilliance in the sky for a split second before vanishing to be one of the most beautiful things in the universe. 

The sounds of the explosions ahead of them were almost identical to the sounds of the fireworks he so loved being set off, but there was nothing beautiful about these. Even if he couldn't completely see the capital, he could make out the long trails of smoke rising from the buildings he had just left behind, and he couldn't suppress a shiver of fear as he and Ryu raced back down the path they had came, the sleeves of their robes flying behind them like the wings of some colorful bird. The smell of somethingー _several_ somethingsーburning filled his nose, causing a new wave of fear and nausea to roll over him as he raced after his friend, who was running so fast he was practically gliding above the earth's surface. The trees passed them in a blur; it was a miracle neither boy had lost their footing, racing down the old steps and steep slope at breakneck speeds. 

They hadn't even made it halfway up the winding path towards the capital when the smell of something burning had assailed their noses at almost the exact same moment. This was immediately followed up with several deafening sounds not unlike thunderーand, as if setting off a chain reaction, the roar behind them was accompanied by several more, going off in intervals. They didn't even have a moment to wonderーboth of them had immediately turned back the path they came. Koki had only caught a glimpse of Ryu's face; his expression was panicked and there was a hint of disbelief, a bit of confusion. Their instincts screamed "danger" but in both their minds, no doubt, they were completely perplexedーcaught completely off guard and puzzled beyond words, if such light phrases were appropriate enough to encompass the situation. But it did little to slow them down, and within less than half the time it had taken them to come up the path from the capital they were back down it again, standing at the bridge leading from the steep path into one of the many entrances of the capital city. 

The capital was brimming with activityーif one could call the scene of absolute chaos before them "activity" at all. Buildings were in the throes of burning, the flames not high enough to have indicated they had been burning for a long time. People raced with reckless abandon around the streets, destinations unclearーthe only thing they seemed to know for certain was that they needed to _move,_ they needed to _run,_ to get as fast away from there as humanly possible. Bodies crashed into one another, the stragglers were nearly crushed underfoot by the sheer force of the human traffic, and here and there shouts and cries of confused panic arose, amidst the chorus of explosions and hissing flame. Beside him, Ryu cursed rapidly, several colorful words flying from his mouth, all packed somehow in one sentence. Koki couldn't tear his eyes from the plumes of smoke that were beginning to riseーnever had he seen such a sight. It was awful to behold, a clear sign of terror and despair, colored the grays and blacks of a major storm. Below the rolling, massive smoke there were the hints of orange and red, a sign that the flames were quickly on the rise. 

" _Fuck,_ " Ryu's eyes reflected the dancing flames, and in them Koki could see the fires of his own rage burning too. The bridge before them seemed to loom like some gateway into hell itself, and the dark-haired youth looked like he was very much ready to tear it apart. "Fucking, _damn it all._ For the _fucking_ love of Xuanwu, you have got to be _kidding_ me right now."

"What..." Koki stared, at a loss for words. He didn't think his _brain_ was even working properlyーthat was how hard to process the scene in front of him was. 'What the hell...is happening? Why isー" _The capital burning,_ he wanted to continue, but his tongue felt stuck, as if articulating the reality before him would give it an even heavier and horrible weight than it already had. 

Ryu, still cursing in a myriad of jumbled words, pulled out his _jiéshi_ from the depths of his loose robe, holding the stone at chest level as he gauged the waters beneath them. After muttering something to himself, so quick Koki missed it, the fierce-eyed boy suddenly grabbed his arm, pulling the redhead close to him. 

"DON'T," Ryu hissed between his teeth, "Move from this spot. I'm gonna be right back." His eyes were dead serious, a weight of terrifying certainty behind them that brooked no further argument. Or would have, had his opponent not been Koki, who had been told, several times, that he could be remarkably stubborn and prone to ignoring what other people told him to do. 

"'Be right back'?" He grasped Ryu's shoulder as the other boy began to run for the town, the burning town, with the rising fire and the ash. "What are you gonna do?"

"None of your business," Ryu snapped, "Let me go. I can't stop for this right now."

"Not until you tell me what you're trying to do." Koki shook his head, determined to stand his ground. The dark-haired boy glowered at him. He glared right back.

"Kokiー"

" _Tell me._ "

Ryu tried to shake him off, but he kept his grip held tight. Or tried to. The result was Ryu half-dragging him across the bridge with him in an attempt to pull Koki off; the latter, so focused on keeping the strength in his arm, couldn't concentrate on also keeping the other from going into the town at all. The dark-haired boy let out a sound that was half a snarl, half a groan. "I'm gonna use the river's water to put out the fires," he finally snapped, relenting to the redhead's questioning. "So _let me go,_ and _stay. Here._ " Before he could even finish the sentence, Koki was cutting him off, shaking his head.

"Those aren't normal fires," he practically shouted, desperate. "You could get hurt going in there. You can't do this on your own."

"There isn't exactly a _choice_ here, is there?!" was the furious reply. "Unless you somehow magically procure another magic user to help me then this town isn't gonna start putting out the fires themselves!" He shook his whole upper half forward violently, and Koki nearly lost his balance and fell over with the force of it. Ryu glowered at him. "Koki. Let. Me. Go." Each word was accentuated with growing force through ground teeth. But even as the unexpectedness of the normally cool boy's behavior frightened him, he was more frightened by the prospect of him getting hurt, with no backup and no one to notice. 

He shook his head determinedly, refusing to look away. "I'm going with you." He raised his voice over the other just as he opened his mouth to protest yet again. "I'm going. Because if you get hurt, or need help, then I'll be the only one available to provide it, whether you like it or not. So I'm coming with you, and there's nothing you can do to stop me." 

"You are _not_ coming with me."

"You don't get to decide that."

"Koki, I'm being serious, this isn't the time for this."

"And I'm being serious too, so let's go. I'm _coming with you._ "

Ryu let out an aggravated snarl, which was cut off by a large hissing noise behind them. Just as they both whirled around to look, they saw a portion of an entire roof cave in, no longer able to stand the lapping red flames, which tore at their supports and made them all as flimsy and easy to crumble as wet paper. Seemingly sensing that there would be no point if they kept arguing any longer, Ryu finally said, very begrudgingly, "Fine! But _do not_ go too close to the fires, and don't go into any of the buildings. And STICK WITH ME, no matter what. Got it?" Glancing at Koki to make sure he nodded in the affirmative, the dark-haired boy dove into the village, stone beginning to glow in shades of blue, ranging from the pale hues of frost and ice to the deep shine of an endless sea. Koki, determined not to fall behind, raced after as well, avoiding the burning stalls and falling bits of debris as Ryu dashed through the town, the water from the river they had just been standing over trailing after him like a serpent, putting out the blazing flames wherever it slithered over. 

They wove through the town, Ryu occasionally calling in more streams of water from different parts of the winding river, and for a while he seemed to be making progress. Never mind that the glow of his stone was almost sickeningly bright in Koki's eyes, or the fact that at times he felt the water gurgled dangerously near him, rippling abnormally in no way he had seen water ever do before. But each time Ryu merely guided the water further from the redhead, tossing it into the depths of houses that were practically blackening. Koki stomped away any remaining embers, and each time he called into the houses and buildings for any survivors, any who had been injured. They managed to save seven people from the inside of the structures, the worst injury they discovered being a young man with a rather horrible burn on his arm where a falling beam had struck himーhe was accompanied by an older man they suspected was his father, who helped support him as they ran back the path Koki and Ryu had came, which was steadily growing free of fire. Ryu occasionally ran too far ahead, but every time he glanced back and saw Koki falling even slightly behind, he immediately adjusted his pace to fall in line with the redhead, making his cheeks burn, but not from the heat of the fire around them. 

Just as they were nearing the center of the town, Koki felt a sudden jolt, his instincts whispering nervously. It was a fleeting jab in his mind, nothing more, and once he might have dismissed it as paranoia. But there had been the sounds of explosions and terror, indicating that something about this fire was not rightーthis wasn't a fire with natural causes. This hadn't been a simple accident. It had spread too far, too fast. Struck by a horrible sense of déjà vu, he turned his head around, back and forth, searching through the still burning fires that Ryu sprinted towards to put out, and the now-silent buildings that no longer crumbled under a blanket of red, instead standing, some crumbled, some blackened, all burnt and damaged. He didn't have the sense of a fighter, but he _knew,_ by some odd sleight of hand under the gods' eyes which had granted him good perception, that _something_ was out there, watching. Waiting. Gauging _him,_ or something else. Unconsciously, his hand went into his robes, knowing that what he had there would help, but also that he himself had no real clue if he would be of any use with it. A bead of cold sweat, despite the intense, searing heat, rolled down his temple. His eyes watered, and, nervously, he ran his tongue over his lips, opening his mouth to call out to Ryu. Whether it was to warn him, or simply to gain some comfort from hearing his voice, he didn't know, but suddenly he couldn't stand the thought of the quiet continuing a moment longer. Even the sounds of the blazing flames, which were still reeling over the roofs further up ahead, suddenly seemed distant and far away. 

Taking one step forward, he half shouted, "Ryuー" before he was cut off, as abruptly as this whole mess had started, as abruptly as Ryu had beckoned him under the willows, as abrupt as every other thing that had been happening in his life for the past two weeks, which seemed to be nothing but a whirlwind of plotting and discord that he didn't even know could exist in this world. Acting on instinct more than thought, he rolled to the side, just as something silver and heavy whistled past his ear, hitting the stones below with a dull noise that echoed unpleasantly in the burning town. Up ahead, Ryu had whirled around, face contorted in surprise, then fury. He lunged forward, throwing out his hand towards Koki, jets of water hurtling forward like arrows as he ran. But he didn't get too far before another projectile, this one whistling with the sounds of the wind, came rushing towards the young mage from the opposite direction, colliding with the stream of water and creating a blast that threw them both off their feet. 

To his left, where the swordーbecause what else would it be, he thought bitterlyーhad come crashing down, prepared to amputate his arm from the rest of his body, he heard the click of a tongue, the sound of someone's annoyance. Behind him, he felt another presence approach, but before he could whirl around, or even run, he felt something hard and heavy slam into his back, knocking the air out of him, and his armsーwhich he had been using to push himself up after the shock of the initial blastーgave way from underneath him. Letting out an involuntary cry of pain and shock, he fell forward again. On his back, somethingーsome _one_ ーwas holding him down, and he couldn't move enough to see them. Turning his head painfully against the stone, he struggled to catch Ryu in his visionーthe other had been knocked down by the blast, but he had managed to stand again, eyes smoldering with fury and hatred as he stared at whoever had caught them both off guard. 

"You fucking _bastards._ " Ryu's face was contorted into an almost feral snarl, body frozen in a half-crouched position.

"Hello again." came the taunting reply, and Koki felt his entire spine freeze over. The voice was too familiar and yet completely out of place. 

And it was _too soon._ His head spun with confusion. Why now? Why of all the times?

"It's soooo wonderful that we get to see you again," continued the voice, and Koki could almost imagine the childish smile that accompanied those words, under that head of pink blonde hair. "We were so rudely interrupted last time, and we didn't even get to end things evenly, did we? This time, we get to take our time _playing_ with the two of you."

* * *

Even before the palace's soldiers had begun to mobilize, even before the rest of them had managed to equip themselves with weapons, Kaiji had flown out of the palace, Riku hot on his heels. Neither of them had any weapons to speak of, but there wasn't any room for such concerns in their mindsーin their heads, they could only think of the two people who hadn't been there with them in the garden to read the letters, who hadn't been in the safety of the palace when the screams had been heard and the smoke could be seen rising. And as reasonable as it seemed that the two of them were likely out of the capital, safely evacuated, he couldn't stop the rush of fear that gripped his heart when he thought of any of the two of them being caught in that mess. His imagination conjured horrible images of Koki caught or stranded in a burning building, or of Ryu struck by flying debris or large embersーbecause that was the evil of wandering and troubled minds; they conjured the worst things, creating scenarios straight out of a nightmare to give their owner a dose of anxiety and panic, triggering a new cascade of terror. Feeling his vision blur with near-despair, he ran as fast as his legs could carry him, down the path he had memorized to the capital, stumbling on jutting roots and overturned stones, on beds of large plants and oddly shaped steps, not caring that he scraped his arms and legs as he crashed into trees and into the ground. His hands became covered in dirt and grit as he pushed himself up each time, and there was a scrape on his left palm, a result of pushing too hard against a tree he had nearly ran straight into, where the bark was peeling and sharp points stuck out, making the surface painful to topple into. Which Kaiji did, although the sacrifice of his hand had prevented any further injury. 

Behind him he could hear Riku half-wheezing as he hurtled after his friend. Judging from the occasional shouted curse and rustling noise, the other boy was having just as much trouble maintaining a straight line down the path at the speed he was going. With breakneck abandon, Kaiji hurtled through the last of the undergrowth towards the path that led to a bridge serving as one of the town's various entrances. It wasn't the main path from the capital to the palace, but rather a side path that was more commonly utilized, for it was the shortest. As Kaiji drew to a halt at the sight before his eyes, Riku came stumbling past the trees as well, gasping for air like a fish brought to land. Both boys were much more athletic than a majority of their peers for their age, but even they needed to catch their breath (or a lot of their breaths) after hurtling down a steep incline at dangerous speeds. Kaiji felt himself sweating underneath his robes, and the heat wafting from the town wasn't making matters any better.

"Where's," Riku wheezed, bending over as he struggled to calm his breathing. "Where's the fire?"

It was there, in the distance, but the buildings they faced from the bridge, as they entered the capital, were no longer burning. They were blackened, or broken down, but not a single one remained under flame. For a moment Kaiji wondered if the soldiers stationed in the capital had already begun to mobilize, until Riku murmured, "The ground is wet."

Indeed it was. Kaiji blinked and stared down at the faint impressions of water left behind on the pavement. The heat from the fires meant they didn't exactly _soak_ the stone ground, but nonetheless there was far more of an impression left behind than had a normal squadron of warriors mobilized themselves and begun to carry water from the river to put out the fires. 

"How...?" he murmured, perplexed, when he heard the faint noises of crashing. There were shouts and screams, barked calls that sounded like commands, followed up by voices rimmed with panic. Then, silence.

"The hell...?" Kaiji began to start forward, towards the voices, when he felt a tug at his sleeve. Before he had room to even blink, he was pulled into one of the saved buildings, Riku right beside him. Staring at each other in confusion, they started at the intrusion of a new voice.

"Honestly, you two, I thought you were much more sensible than this." Haru scratched his head, worry creasing his brow slightly. His voice was laid-back, but his expression wasn't the same languid mask he wore whenever they saw him. In his eyes was a grim light, and he stared outside. He must have followed them, Kaiji realized, when they had both collectively rushed outside of the palace; of course the others weren't about to let the two of them brave the danger alone, unarmed. They hadn't thought of what the others would do with their absenceーhadn't even thought they would notice in the sudden panic and bustle of activity. "Keep quiet. I don't think you want _that_ thing to come after us." 

" _That?_ " Riku's own brow creased, and he and Kaiji both looked outside, following Haru's line of vision. Almost immediately, they both nearly screamed in shock, although at the last minute Riku managed to clap a hand over his mouth, and Haru quickly used his own to cover Kaiji's. Blinking in complete shock, the blonde struggled to regain his calm, suddenly acutely aware of the noisy beating of his heart. No, he did not want _that_ to find him at all. Definitely not.

 _That_ was a pitch black beast of immense size, standing on four legs and dripping a strange black miasma, like goo. There was something horrible about its dark coloring that reminded him of poison and rot, and the creature's eyes were nothing more than pinpoints of white light, standing in stark contrast with the poisonous coloring of its pelt. It had a long tail, like a cat's, which flicked back and forth, reminding Kaiji of a cat on the hunt. Upon closer examination, he could see the very faint markings of stripes, darker than the creature's pelt itself, along the monster's flank. Instead of fur, or the impressions of fur, however, the creature seemed to be made up of the strange dripping miasma, which was sometimes sleek like liquid and sometimes blurred like mist. It made him dizzy, looking at the...thing. It made him sick. It felt _wrong,_ for all sorts of reasons, and he fought back the urge to pass out or run away, trying to calm the too-loud pounding of his heart and steady his breathing, which was coming in short and quick, panicked heaves.

There was a flurry of movement, and Kaiji watched, dumbstruck, as a bleeding and gasping middle-aged man suddenly came rushing out from behind the rubble, soot in his hair and face streaked with ash. He was running straight toward the beast, the panic in his eyes making it clear he hadn't noticed its presenceーor if he had, he couldn't make enough sense of it to run in the other direction.

Before any of them could moveーdo so much as bark a warningーthe _thing_ leaped towards the stumbling human, jaws opened so wide it had practically split its entire mouth in two. And, right in front of the hidden trio's stunned eyes, it closed its jaws around the man, in a spray of crimson red blood. The man's bottom half stood there for a second, as if confused by the sudden loss of its top half, before falling over, blood oozing around it in a growing puddle. The creature began to prowl around, head raised as if sniffing the air, jaw moving. Kaiji heard Riku inhale sharplyーthey could all hear the crunching noises as it moved its dripping, oozing mass of a mouth, and Kaiji had to duck his head before he threw up.

Which meant, with his head ducked, he didn't see the monster swing its head in their direction, where they hid. Not until he felt Riku's death grip on his arm, and Haru's hissed curse, accompanied by the sounds of him drawing a weaponーa cutlass, glinting a shiny gray in the dim light of the town, where the thick smoke from the fires was blocking off the sun.

Kaiji could only watch with wide eyes as the beast suddenly began to charge towards them. Riku pulled his arm, feet poised to runーhe felt his legs belatedly rise too, but in some detached corner of his mind he knew it was already too late. 

Out of nowhere, a streak of brown and white suddenly descended upon the monster, as quick and sudden as the beast's attack itself. It lodged itself firmly in the creature's head, resulting in a chilling howl of pain that shook the air itselfーa roar of fury and disbelief that was too raw to be human, and yet too _emotional_ to be simply that of a beast. He didn't see any blood pouring out from the creature's wound, but judging from the depth with which the arrowーshot from seemingly nowhereーlodged itself in its face, it had likely done its fair share of damage. There was a rush of wind as Haru rushed forward, cutlass in hand, with a speed he had never seen from the normally relaxed man. In mere seconds he was upon the beast, blade flashing dangerously, swinging his sword right across the monster's face, directly below where the arrow had struck true. The distracted creature didn't even have time to register the blow until the blade had neatly sliced through the glowing pinpoints that seemed to signify its eyes, spraying out chunks of the sickeningly dark miasma. Watching it Kaiji realized that the miasma was actually a _physical_ sort of material, not completely as mist-like as its appearance suggested, and neither a complete solid or a liquid either. 

The beast's shrieking went up in pitch, a horrible wailing noise that instinctively made him cover his ears. Yowling, the creature reared on Haru, jaws open wide and one paw raised to strike him, but it hadn't even started forward when a torrent of arrows, one after the other in rapid-fire succession, came raining down, lodging themselves in its pelt or simply cutting through its hide to land unceremoniously on the ground. Dark chunks of the creature's flesh flew, spraying more of the miasma everywhereーthat was, Kaiji realized with gut-wrenching disgust, the creature's "blood". With one final piercing wail and a flail of its half-raised paw, the monster toppled on its feet, skidding past Haru with the momentum it had used to try and pounce on him. Haru barely flinched as the beast fell, practically at his side, only hopping back a few feet to avoid its twitching limbs as it thrashed in the last throes of death, before he slid his sword into its throat, cutting off the beast's weakening cries. 

Beside him, Riku slid to the ground, all strength lost from his legs. Kaiji could only watch in open-mouthed distress as Haru walked up to the enormous corpse, peering down at it with interest. He could see now, with Haru standing right near the beast, just how large it had been. From a roof (Kaiji didn't see which), he spotted a figure leap down gracefully, a bow in hand, a bundle of arrows packed on his back. HeーShoーwalked over to Haru, who had knelt by the corpse and was examining it with narrowed and piercing eyes. Kaiji belatedly recalled having a vague memory of one of Haru's companions donning a bow, back when they had first met. They must have both followed them thenーunless Taichi, their third companion, was also here, then that would mean the two adults had been the ones to trail after Kaiji and Riku after they had flown out of the palace in their panic.

"It's stupidly large," Kaiji heard Haru mutter as he reached out and ran a handーwithout touching the creature's pelt directlyーthrough the air over the corpse's side. "Imagine how much energy it takes to create this thing."

Sho shrugged. "It's huge and terrifying but I wasn't expecting it to go down so easily. From what the guards were describing from the first attack, I would've thought these things would be impossible to beat. Didn't one of them say their swords were having little effect?"

Haru glanced at the cut he had made on the creature's head. "Maybe," he muttered, "But I don't know for certain. Let's bring this one back to the palace; if we dissect and inspect it we can come up withー" He hadn't even gotten halfway through that sentence when he suddenly stood, yanking Sho back as he retreated backwards. Sho let out a surprised squawk, interrupted moments later by a weird sizzling and popping sound. Seconds later, the corpse suddenly began to _vanish,_ becoming a mass of indistinguishable dark, gooey muck that writhed and bubbled, like the strange concoctions of an evil and powerful witch. The mass slowly seemed to disintegrate, steam rising from the lump as it shrank, and the air was filled with a rank smell, like that of rotting flesh in the heat of summer. The four of them could only watch, dumbstruck, as what had mere moments ago been a giant, hulking monster on all fours that had ripped the top half of a human clean off his body, turned into a steadily disintegrating mass of purplish black slime that eventually vanished all together, leaving nothing, save for an oddly glowing shard, behind. 

Walking past a stunned Sho, Haru briskly returned to his original spot, where he had crouched by the now-vanished corpse, leaning over the gleaming shard that had been left behind. Picking it up with a careful hand, the scruffy man held it up, squinting at it with apparent confusion, turning it in his hands over and over. 

"Isn't that," Sho swallowed, " _J_ _iéshi_?" 

"Not quite," muttered Haru in response, and Kaiji could only listen, dazed and confused, not noticing the lurking shadow that had crept up on the roof of the building adjacent to the one they were hiding in. "It looks likeー"

"Haru-san, look out!" Riku suddenly lurched forward, shouting; Kaiji whirled, startled, towards his friend. Haru and Sho, experienced as they were, immediately responded to the shouted warning, both leaping separate ways as something leaped from the nearby roofーa hooded shadow, whose sharp blade struck the ground where the beast's corpse had not just been two seconds ago. The resulting shock caused the stones of the pavement to chip and crack, shards flying rather dangerously in all directions. Kaiji felt Riku curl his hands around his wrist, imploring him to duck down into the safety of their hiding space. 

The figure pulled back the hood of his cloak, revealing dark hair and deep, piercing eyes, all on a face that screamed "elegance" no matter from which angle you looked. It was at complete odds with the darkness of his cloak, which was adorned by only a simple clasp at the front, a symbol of a small opal surrounded by metal bent in the shape of a dancing white tiger. The symbol of the Opal Kingdom, Xifang.

"Well _shit._ " Haru hissed.

"So much for waiting for backup," muttered Sho, his hands on his bow once more. "How much longer do you think until Taichi brings some reinforcements to our location?"

"I'd say...ten minutes or so?"

"That's too long."

"You're telling me."

As the ceaseless banter between the two began, the Xifang man didn't respond, only calmly unsheathing a blade that resembled a thin shortsword: a _jian,_ like the one Gen had. Leveling it at the two, he gave them both a beautiful, spine-chilling smile.

"It pains me to break up the friendly antics of two very good companions," The man sighed, as if truly remorseful, his smile not wavering once. "But, unfortunately, one of you placed his hands on the fruits of our _very_ important research, and I'm afraid my orders were to execute anyone who did such." At his side, in a pouch that had been hidden under his long cloak, Kaiji saw something glow, a hue of emerald shifting to lime and back, similar to the glow that occurred whenever Takato or Ryu or Kanon started magic, and he felt his whole body break out into a cold sweat. The edges of his sword suddenly seemed to blur and vibrate and beside him, Riku drew in a sharp breath. The air seemed infused with tension, every bone in his body geared to run away, as fast as possible.

"I do hope," the man smiled, teeth gleaming white like pearls, his face positively angelic, "That you will not hold it against me as you die."

* * *

The first thing they needed to do, Aoi heard Kanade instruct the warriors assembled, with the aid of his retainers and the head of the royal guard, was to search for any persons injured or trapped by the roaring flames. Their main objective was securing the safety of the peopleーwhether they managed to save the buildings was a tertiary concern. Their _secondary,_ which Kanade didn't say outright but everyone instinctively knew, was to find the perpetrators and stop them using any means necessaryー _including_ detaining them through more than just force. In other words, they didn't care about capturing their enemy alive, not after so obvious a declaration of war as this. If there was anything to be gained from it, Aoi mused as he shoved back burned beams of wood, searching for anyone who might have been caught under, was that they no longer had to worry about triggering a war with Xifang if the decided to investigate the convergence point; the Opal Kingdom had already made it perfectly clear that they intended to solve this problem through conflict and bloodshed.

 _Fine,_ then. Screw them and their conflict-lusting habits. If they were so determined to bring Nan Fang to its knees, then they would have to be prepared to suffer for several losses of their own. As soon as he saw a Xifang soldier, Aoi resolved, he was going to go for their necks, no questions asked. The fingers wrapped around his dagger gripped harder, and he fought back the urge to pull out his weapon here, on the spot. The enemy was _here,_ for sure, no doubt. But he wanted to leave them as unsuspecting as possibleーif they wanted to think their kingdom was full of fools who couldn't even differentiate between a normal fire and an attack, then let them. That in itself was a mark of letting one's guard down, and he intended to poke that opportunity to its fullest.

Rushing past burning buildings, desperately ignoring the smoke filling his lungs, Aoi listened for cries for help, occasionally raising his own voice to let his presence be known. Every time he found a person, he directed them towards the nearest guards, who were spread out the path he came and further, all ready to lead any trapped or injured civilians to safety. A few times he ran into his other companions as they navigated the burning townーKanon was shooting water from the river at the worst of the fires, with Kanade providing assistance. It was the first time he had seen the prince actually utilize magic (discounting his redirection of the rogue energy in the _jiéshi_ ), but he had little time to be impressed. Gen and Seiichiro were guiding groups of ash-covered civilians, one of them carrying an young girl with a burn on her foot on his back. Gabriel ran up to Aoi several times with status reports, and he could see Taichi race off somewhere, likely in search of his companions.

Speaking of... Aoi recalled that Kyogoku Ryu and Tendo Koki had come down to the capital earlier that day and had been yet to return. He prayed that they had gone in search of safe shelter, and also prayed that Koki's two friendsーHiura Kaiji and Odajima Rikuーhad found them, outside the capital, where they were all safe. Presumably Haru and Sho would be safe too, if that were the caseーthey had chased after Kaiji and Riku when they had dashed out of the palace in their panic to find their red-haired friend.

As he drew further and further away from the rest of the soldiers and his companions, Aoi felt his instincts heighten dramatically, a whispered warning carried on the wind which blew the ash and smoke into the air. The fires had mostly ceased, thanks to the speedy efforts of their resident magic users, although a few still burned on the horizon. They hadn't taken the back route, instead opting to use the main path leading to the largest entrance in the capital, largely in part to the size of their troops, of which they had brought plenty. Aoi was confident they could handle the fireーwhich left him to deal with the _other_ presence in the capital that he could _sense._ Hand at the ready, he wove between buildings, over small bridges connecting one side of the river to the other, past smoking wood and burnt out husks, blackened...and then froze.

"Someone was here," he said aloud, staring at the husksーall of which no longer burnedーof the buildings that had once stood there, tall and proud. "The fires are out in this direction." Meaning it was likely not foeーbut that meant one of their allies was in the capital, potentially without assistance, and there were only a scant number of people who fit that list, and even fewer who would have been capable of such a feat. 

Following the line of buildings devoid of fire, Aoi kept his ears open for the sounds of any life, eyes scanning his surroundings as discreetly as possible. He didn't think he had to worry about an ambushーnot, he thought with a small grin, with the backup he had planned for himself. Hopefully it would work.

Just as his thoughts dangerously strayed, he heard the faint sound of pebbles falling, of feet knocking against grit. A ripple in the corner of his eyes immediately put him on guard, and by the time the attack came streaking towards him, faster than starlight, he had already pulled out his dagger in one smooth motion, blade turned to block and absorb the blow. 

The dull sound of metal on metal reverberated throughout the silent capital, the roar of the blazing flames already becoming distant as it was sedated. Immediately his attacker used the built up force between their stand off to launch himself back, sword knocked only slightly off trajectory by Aoi's defense. Without missing a beat, he darted after his foe, stance slipping from defensive to offensive, dagger pulled back to aim for the small space left open when his attacker had tried to pull back. His dagger flashed as he slashed it sideways, a long clean arc across his opponent's stomach. Fabric flew, but not bloodーa sign that his mark had nearly hit true, had his reach been any longer or had he stepped any closer. Thrown off-balance by Aoi's quick attacks, his opponent stumbled, rolling swiftly to the side rather than try to right themselves up, taking advantage of the roll to swing out their blade towards Aoi's legs. He quickly leapt out of the way before racing after the figure again, dagger held in a neutral stance, ready to shift to defensive whenever necessary. As if sensing his preparation, his attacker simply continued his retreat, nimbly backing up a few paces beyond Aoi's reach whenever the shorter man managed to get too close. On the hooded man's face, Aoi could see the makings of the smallest of smirks.

Clicking his tongue in annoyance, Aoi switched tactics; he aimed not for the man himself, but the blade he carried, which was raised in a standard stance for curved blades such as his. The flat of the blade was thick, making it easy to aim for, even if his weapon was considerably shorter, with even less reach. The dagger hit true, and the sudden force applied to the man's considerably large blade forced him to focus on assuming his stance once moreーcreating a sliver of an opening for Aoi to dash in and hit him again. Pulling his arm back, this time across his chest, he slashed out several times, in rapid succession. For the first time, he saw real panicーmixed with growing hatredーin his opponent's face, and had to suppress a vicious smirk of his own.

Gabriel hadーalthough he never said it outrightーwondered why Aoi had chosen a weapon with such short reach; logically, one would assume Aoi would have chosen to train with a weapon that compensated for his lack of it, as well as his overall demeaning height. It wasn't something he was happy to admit, but it was a fact of life: he was short, at least, compared to most of the men his age, and his weapon choice didn't make up for that weakness. What some failed to take in accountーor, like Gabriel, were too concerned with playing it safe to considerーwas that there were _advantages_ to being certain sizes. If he chose a weapon simply for reach, he would've failed to take into account the myriad of ways he could utilize a different weapon more suited to himーsomething the mayor before him, prior to his retirement due to old age, had told him, once, when he was a young boy.

"I _could,_ hypothetically, be safer if I was using a weapon that compensated for my _physical_ weaknesses," Aoi had admitted to Gabriel, remembering the words of his predecessor as he spoke. "But that fails to take into account the advantages I have built or was born withーI am small, yes, but I am also faster, and I have more room to move than others. I make for a smaller target in a fight, and I can slip through openings faster than most. Even if I don't have reach, that won't be a problem to me if I build enough physical strength and make myself fast enough that I won't _need_ it." 

As soon as he felt his dagger rip through something a little tougher than fabric, followed by a sound like a grunt and hiss of pain, Aoi continued his flurry of attacks. His opponent, apparently having given up on simply dodging and toying with Aoi any further, lifted his leg to give him a sound kick in the abdomen, as soon as he had dove in for yet another swipe. There hadn't been much force to the kick, but Aoi's own momentum meant he collided with his foe's foot _hard_ , and he gave a strangled gasp as he felt the air tear itself out of him, his lungs forgetting, for a moment, to take in air. Quickly, he dove backーthis turned out to be the right decision, for mere seconds later the _dao_ blade was swinging down on the spot he had just stood, a curved caricature of horror and blood, all run through by the thick and oddly shaped sword. Carefully measuring their now-enlarged distance, Aoi tried not to let his opponent know that he was perfectly aware that, behind him, _yet another Xifang attacker stood, ready._

Trying not to let his attacker get too close, Aoi continued to parry his blows, calmly counting the timings of the other man's attacks. They weren't as complicated as he had expectedーnot one-note, obviously not, but not so complicated that he wasn't not getting a sense of them as time ticked on, with neither man getting a finishing blow on the other. The _dao_ had nicked him several times, and he had managed to cut into the flesh of the other. Both of them were beginning to feel the effects of their continued dance, chests heaving with fatigue, thin trails of blood trickling from their wounds. The cut in his opponent's stomach wasn't as deep as he had hoped, but blood still poured from the shallow wound, exhausting him, slowing the _dao_ blade's movements. Just as Aoi was beginning to wonder if he could clean this match up before the _other_ attacker here showed up, he heard a voice behind him, signaling to him that such would not be the case.

"Really, Seiya," came the cold voice, like frost on a freezing winter morning. "I'm not saying that the children of Nan Fang are _untalented_ at combat, but this is taking far too much time than it should." The tension in the air crackled as a third presence made themselves known, appearing from seemingly nowhere, a _chokuto_ blade held in one hand, a glowing stone in the other. _Magic,_ he thought, realizing that _that_ was what had hinted at the other man's presenceーand then going cold at the memory of there being only one magic user in the hall that night, the one who had summoned beastly tigers as part of a mock-up contractor's spell on top of nearly incinerating them all with a wall of fire. 

_This,_ he had to admit, had not been the opponent he had been expecting.

"Shut _up,_ Juukiya," spat the man the magic user had called Seiya. "I know, I _know,_ nothing in our great plans ever said I'd be caught up fighting this dagger-wielding little bastard endlessly, so you don't have to _tell_ me!" With a snarl, he suddenly lunged at Aoi again, his blade faster than before. Behind them, he could hear the man Seiya had called Juukiya murmur, "There you go," softly, as if pleased that his words had incited such a reaction. Even then, however, there was a thick layer of ice in his voice, enough to chill even the sweltering heat of the capital, which had been burning only a few minutes ago.

This time it was Aoi who was purely on the defensiveーhe couldn't get a single hit in. It was as if the man in front of him had been possessed. Sparks flew as their blades clashed; Aoi's dagger was nearly thrown out of his hands on several occasions, and the _dao_ came very close to cutting a mortal wound in his body. Every molecule in his body screamed at him to call for assistance, to request backup. But he couldn't retaliate yet, not until...

"Enough," sighed Juukiya, and the stone in his hand began to darkenーnot, Aoi realized, because he was deactivating whatever spell he had planned, but because the glow itself surrounding the _jiéshi_ had begun to turn a shade of a poisonous purplish black, like bubbling goo. It was an ugly, sickening colorーthe purples contained none of the beauty of lilacs or amethysts and the blacks didn't have the lovely endlessness of a clear midnight's sky. The writhing light around the stone felt off and wrong, like acid had been poured over it and it was suffering from the effects. Slowly, around the sword-wielding mage, a ring of writhing shadows began to expand, and Aoi could feel the air around him grow heavy, as if a thousand bricks had been piled upon his body. 

_Something_ was coming out of that circle, something wrong and bloodcurdling. He knew immediately that he was looking upon that sham of a contractor's spell, even before the pitch black creature that only resembled a tiger by the slightest in its vague silhouette, and the faintly darker markings on its miasma-dripping body that resembled stripes. He didn't even want to know how he could see the stripes, not when the creature was nothing but a coagulation of dark energy, dripping off of its hazy body like poison. 

But he also knew that this was the opportunity he had been searching for. 

" _Now!_ " he shouted, voice hoarse from exhaustion and the smoke in his lungs. " _Now,_ Kyogoku, damn it!"

Before the two attackers from Xifang had time to blink, Kyogoku Takato, seemingly out of nowhere, appeared behind Juukiya's back, his _odachi_ pulled back. The ridiculously long blade cut a neat arc through the air, and would have cleaved Juukiya in two had he not quickly teleported out of the way. The result was the ring of shadows weakening considerably, and the miasma-dripping creature let out an odd howl, almost of pain. 

Before he and Takato had left the palace, Kanon had stopped both of them, telling them her suspicionsーno, more of her absolute certaintyーthat this was Xifang's second attack. "Kanade wants to prioritize the citizens' safety, and I agree with him," she had said, eyes burning with a quiet determination. "But I also don't want to let this opportunity go."

"Opportunity?" Takato had tilted his head.

"Opportunity." Kanon parroted back with a nod.

"For what?" Aoi had asked.

Kanon's plan was this: if Xifang was attacking, then they were sure to use the contractor's spell againーthere was a three out of four guarantee. "If they don't," she had said, "It's not out loss. But if they do, then this could be our chance to study them in full." She had split them up into pairs, one magic user to each pair: Aoi and Takato; Kanon and Kanade (who was also a magic user but would be busy dealing with leading the charge on this mess); Riichi and Gabriel. Kanade's two retainers wouldn't leave his side, and Taichi had wanted to go search for Haru. "I don't care how you do it," Kanon had said, softly, "But if you can, try and learn something about these creaturesーor better yet, find the one who summons them. Anything."

After some discussion, they had settled on a decoy operation: Aoi would make himself vulnerable, and Takato would make himself invisible. A simple plan, but there were times when those worked best. And while they had been hoping to catch one of the creatures themselves, the appearance of the mage behind their creation was an opportunity they needed to seize. The sounds of the explosions had long ceased, and he could see less and less plumes of roiling smoke, instead only seeing the leftovers of dying flame. Kanade was working fast, he marveled, as he focused his blade on Seiya, while Takato casually leveled his at Juukiya and the snarling beast, who seemed agitated at the weakening of the circle it had just come out of.

Behind the raised blade, Takato's eyes glinted mischievously, and, with the brightest of cocky grins, he looked dead into the Xifang mage's eyes and said, "Surprise, asshole."

As far as witty one-liners go, Aoi supposed it wasn't the worst, although the casualty of it made him doubt the seriousness of their situation for a brief moment. Not letting his gaze waver, he began to circle his opponent, blade at the ready, trying to ignore the sting of the many cuts on his face, his arms, his legs, his sides...instead he focused on the exhaustion on his foe's face, which was streaked with ash and sweat and blood, lips gritted angrily as he realized he and his companion had just been subjected to a sneak attackーa rather fitting irony, Aoi thought, trying not to sneer. 

"Well, Kyogoku," he said, trying to keep the exhaustion out of his voice, even as his chest heaved with each breath. "It seems our idea worked out just fine."

"Hell yeah it did," Takato responded, looking extremely proud of himself. He shot Juukiya a glare, eyes blazing with righteous fury. "I'm gonna get back at you tenfold for that last time, buddy. Don't think you can get rid of me with a wall of flame so easily."

"Funny," laughed the mage coldly, "If I recall, the only reason you survived my flame was because that young girl came to your aid." Seiya gave a small, derisive snort at this, his _dao_ dipping down slightly with the movement.

Takato shrugged philosophically, "Hey, having friends to save your ass isn't something to be ashamed of." He gave a wide, confident grin. "And luckily, I happen to have one with me right now."

Aoi tried hard not to look at the older Kyogoku brother in surprise. Instead, he tightened his hand on the dagger, responding in a clipped voice, "I don't recall becoming your friend...but it is true that we are rather evenly matched here, for had you two been without your pet, I would imagine the odds would be terribly against you."

Seiya's eyes darkened with fury. "Keep talking," he hissed, "And see how quickly you lose that impertinent tongue of yours."

"Try it."

Without a second word to each other, as if on cue and at the exact same moment, all four of them dove at one another, weapons drawn.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOW that was long. For me. I don't know 'bout the rest of you. 10K words is an achievement for me, although I'm sure I've said the same whiny things before. I'm sorry....
> 
> Fight scenes are hard to write, but so very, very fun. Imagining the movements is easier than finding the expressions for them through linguistic methods, but I think so long as I get to imagine the fight scene itself in my head, I'm happy. And if it excites anyone reading (hopefully), I'm triple happy. Hooray for being triple happy.
> 
> Thank you for reading once again, as all my closing comments go. I hope you have a wonderful day, full of whatever constitutes rainbows and unicorns and sparkly cupcakes for you (in other words, fantastical happiness).


	23. Chapter 23

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Courses draw near, and I see a grim future for my free time...and yet somehow I manage, so I suppose one way or another I will learn to deal with it.
> 
> Updates may start coming a little later, because I want to have some fun with one-shots and prompts, for my imagination is a wild horse and I left the rope hanging inside the house.
> 
> Anyway, chapter update, ahoy! Aaaand I'll shut up now.

Being a traveler meant facing one too many dangers on an almost daily basis, which also meant that, as the time spent traveling grew, one's experience with facing danger grew. It was a set principle in life, of sortsーyou lived to face another day, tell your tale, and you learned a little something new. Don't anger the large, lumbering hairy boar by treading on the wildflower patch it claimed its territory. Don't approach a scorpion too quicklyーif you had to at allーand when extracting the poisons in its tail, maybe ensure that the thing was _dead_ before doing so. Or, at the very least, incapable of any sort of movement, tail (most definitely) included.

He had to admit, facing a mage-slash-extremely skilled swordsman from the violent territory of Xifangーwhere everyone likely knew how to kill somebody (or had the experience doing so)ーwas in a new domain of "dangerous things he probably shouldn't attempt too often in his life, if he wanted to keep it".

The young man from Xifang was quick, and it wasn't just in the speed with which he dodged or parried. He swung his blade effortlessly, as if carried little weight. The laws of gravity didn't seem to work on him; twice he had leaped heights Haru didn't think humans could normally reach, as he had been dodging Sho's arrows. His companion had retreated a safe distance to snipe their adversary down, but, unfortunately, he couldn't gain the height he had had earlier, when faced with the dissolved beastーevery time Sho attempted to make his way to a higher vantage point, their foe somehow managed to slip past Haru to chase after the hunter, aiming at his poorly guarded back with the point of his _jian,_ which was vibrating with some sort of energy that hadn't been released yetーnot, at least, with anything he could visibly see. He could see the emerald glow of the _jiéshi_ hanging at the man's sideーit was very obviously what was causing the swirl of malice around the _jian,_ but for the life of him Haru couldn't remember what spell would cause such a deep green glow; the primary colors of the stones, no matter the nature of the spell, usually alternated between the colors of the Four: shades of white and blue and black-turned-to-purple and red. There were other colors, yes, for lesser spells, but the problem with lesser spells, he thought with a grimace, was that they were...well, _lesser._ Meaning if there wasn't a full-time mage around, it would be exceedingly difficult to figure out the nature of said spell.

Such as right now.

Behind him, he could feel the presence of the two kidsーKaiji and Rikuーand he was reminded that, of the two opposing sides here, he was the one with the biggest disadvantage: he had too much to protect, and little room for maneuvering. This guy had all the room in the worldーhe was certainly making it look that way.

Haru's cutlass, in terms of size, should have had the advantage, but the two of them had been parrying back and forth, neither yielding the slightest bit of ground to the other. It was uncanny; normally, in any fight, there should have been a split second of an opening in any fighter, no matter how skilled. Haru was acutely aware that he himself had nearly slipped up several times over the course of their rounds of parrying and slicing and stabbing, yet his opponent showed no sign of tiring. Nor, he noticed, did he show any sign of taking advantage of his own momentary openingsーsurely a fighter of his caliber would've noticed by now, and yet not a single killing blow came in. He knew, in the way any survivor knows, when and where he could have been killed, just as surely as he knows all the tales he writes hold a grain of truth to them, no matter how much Riichi, with his penchant for scorning fairy tales, scoffs. Several times he could feel Sho's panic at his back, and every time a rain of arrows would come, haphazardly at their adversary, a sign of Sho's own openings, where his fear at the potential of losing his friend overpowered his rationality. 

Slashing out with his cutlass, Haru was beginning to wonder if their opponent was actually _trying_ to drag out the fight, to make it last longer than it should. At the rate they were going, it was certainly plausible that backup on their end would arrive. Dodging a light jab from the _jian,_ followed up with several more, Haru retreated several steps, mind racing. 

_If we tried to run,_ he thought, _what would this guy do...?_

An arrow flew yet again over his head as the thought flashed through his mind, another one of Sho's attacks. At this point, however, the patterns were becoming too recognizable, too easy to read. It would only be a matter of time, he surmised, until the _jian_ wielder became tired of Sho's arrow, which threw the balance of the dance he and Haru were twirling through off, the whistle of an arrow throwing the rhythm of their swords askew. And if Sho was lost, then it would make matters harder for Haru tooーnot just the loss of backup, he thought with panic, but the loss of his friend. And if the only two armed men on their side were lost, what would happen to those two kids? They couldn't risk running now, not when they had seen how easily their opponent had slipped past Haru to attack Sho. He had the sneaking suspicion (more of an affirmation at this point) that the man was only postponing doing so, because he was more preoccupied with the two more _threatening_ presences before him. If Haru and Sho hadn't given him too much of a fight from the beginning, he very well may have slaughtered all of them and gone on his way. 

Knocking the _jian_ out of the way with the most powerful swing he could give, he shot Sho a quick glance, one that lasted for barely half a secondーan imperceptible gesture, but enough for the message between longtime companions to make it through. Immediately, he heard the whistle of a very _different_ arrow pass overhead, and, pushing back against his opponent's attempts to close the distance between them after the initial parry yet again, he jumped back, as far and high as his legs would allow. His adversary was left swinging at empty air, and overhead, the arrow passed, releasing a hiss and a crackle, sparks raining down on the sword wielder, whose only response was a confused scrunch of his brow. 

With a spectacular ' _hiss'_ and a bang, the sparkler attached to the arrowーone of Taichi's best (according to the maker himself) designsーwent off in a shower of white light, sparks flying like fireflies, and shining thrice as bright. Not sparing a single moment for the light show, Haru regained his balance and ran back towards the building where Kaiji and Riku still hid, both boys shielding their eyes from the sudden flash. Sho came up right behind him and grabbed Riku's arm; he grabbed Kaiji's, and, without a single glance back, they pulled the two out of the half-burnt husk of a house, running as fast as they couldーor as fast as they could manage with two unwieldy and disoriented young boys between them. 

"Whaー" Kaiji's eyes were saucers, even in the murky and dusty light. "What the hell _was_ that? Who was that guy?!"

Sho shook his head. "Xifang," he said, voice short, not a trace of his normal airiness to be seen. "They're the ones behind this, _again._ "

Riku began to cough violently, a result of running through a field of ash and smoke. They couldn't stop, but Haru saw Kaiji put an arm around his friend in support, keeping a firm grip around his back to prevent the raven-haired youth from falling behind. Haru winced, a sting of guilt piercing the back of his neck. "I should've run sooner," he groaned, ignoring the sweat running into his eyes as a result of the heat, or the burning of his tired lungs. "That guy took me completely by surprise, but we should've hightailed out of there while we had the chanceー"

"It wasn't your fault, or anyone else's," Sho snapped, eyes shifting restlessly as they turned corners, jumped over fallen chunks of burnt buildings and abandoned carts, trying to navigate their way towards one of the town's exits. In the distance, he could see the fires dying downーKanade and the others, he realized, had arrived. "Except for that Xifang cur; he was toying with usーhe didn't want us to leave that place to begin with." They flung themselves downwards as a burst of flame sent sparks raining down towards them, and a creak indicated the beginnings of what would soon become the decay and death of the wood holding the establishment together. Hurriedly ducking into an alleyway, Haru whirled around; there was no sign of any pursuit as far as he could see. As soon as they had stopped, Riku sank to his knees, coughing and hacking as he tried to catch his breath. Each sound was a knife in Haru, and he tried to block it out by keeping a strict vigil, ready to flee at the smallest sign of movement. Beside him, Sho was doing the same.

"He wanted that stone," Haru said quietly, under the dying roar of the steadily diminishing flames. "The one that monster dropped when we killed it; the one that looked like a... _jiéshi,_ almost, except not really." The stone in question had pulsed with the same sickish miasma that had roiled off of the beast, a poisonous shade of purple that looked like the roiling depths of a bottomless pit from someone's nightmares, full of monsters and screams and evil ghosts. He wasn't an expert, nor would he claim to be, at the many shades a _jiéshi_ could turn, but he was reasonably certain that they didn't turn such a...malicious and sickly color. If he had to liken it to something more concrete, he would say it looked like a mix of poison and rot and tar, a terrible color that put in mind illness and strange deaths. The kind of color children imagined demons to beーmalignant shadows with no concrete shape and jagged wings. Haru couldn't say he was terribly scared by the tales of demons and such, but the stone's poisonous glow put that in mind. 

Sho looked at the stone worriedly, brow creased. "I don't think," His friend swallowed a little, face dark. "I don't think a _jiéshi_ is _supposed_ to turn that color."

Haru looked at him. "That guy said he needed to kill us because we saw it," he started slowly, "And this entire time we've been scratching our heads about their 'research' and that nonsense about somehow recreating contractsーof performing a spell that makes a sham of the entire process. If _this_ is the key to it..."

"Then he's gonna come after us, one way or the other," Sho said grimly, "We need to move; if he reports to his companionsーand I'm sure they're all here too, no doubtーthen they'll _know_ that we have our hands on this, and they will most certainly not like that." He gave the two boys, who were still knelt, a sympathetic glance that turned cold and business-like. "Can you two stand? We can't dawdle like this for much longer."

"I'm...fine," gasped Riku, "I can keep going." But Kaiji was shaking his head.

"Not on your own, you can't," the blonde said in no-nonsense tones. Throwing the other boy's arm over his shoulder, he murmured, a soft sound almost lost in the thick heat of the air, "I'll help you, so don't push yourself too hard."

Riku gave a weak laugh. "If we find Koki and Ryu like this," he grinned, "I feel like _we'll_ be the ones scolded for not being careful enough." When he raised his head, his eyes were full of a strong light, which he turned upon the two men, mouth set in a determined line. "Let's go, then."

"Well, aren't you determined and sweet."

Riku blinked and Kaiji's eyes opened wide with surprise. Before he could even register the sudden appearance of a fifth and completely unfamiliar voice, he felt something strike him from the side, the momentum knocking him over. Skidding unceremoniously across the ground, he struggled like a fish on land to rise, only to feel a harsh and (very much unfortunately) familiar pain in his arm. The shaft of an arrow poked up behind his shoulder, from what he could see lying on the ground, and he stared woozily at it and had a faint feeling of bafflement that confused him so greatly, for a second he wondered if Sho had misfired and shot him by accident. That was how sudden and unprecedented the attack had been.

Sho gave an angry shout of outrage, which quickly cut off into one of surprise and pain. A few dull thuds and slams could be heard, accompanied by Kaiji swearing so colorfully, Haru felt a bit impressed. It was only then he realized his mind was woozyー _something_ had been coated on that arrow, dulling his senses and working whatever poison it had on it through his system, shutting everything down slowly.

"And to think," the voice continued, sounding unbearably delighted, a sadistic note creeping in, "Michelle let these guys escape once. Wait 'till Dory hears about this."

"Aww, Chabo, don't tell him," Another voice, slightly gentler but still twisted with a hint of cruel satisfaction, an odd contradiction in itself. "You know Michelle doesn't prefer killing people like this; he can't _help_ it y'know? Remember where they're from?"

"Our leader's from there too, Guerrero, you idiot, so maybe you should watch your mouth." The earlier voice, again, more threatening and serious, but it was fading, getting further and further away, like a dream... _No you idiot, stay awake, they'll take the stone and they'll kill you, all of you, Sho and those kids when none of them did anything wrong, wake up wake up wake up wake upー_

"Wake up, Haru, you idiot!"

There was a new sound now, not the crunch of boots as their new adversaries came over to inspect their fallen preyーthere was the sound of sword hitting sword, of metal on metal, and overhead, the faint _'whoosh'_ of magic spells being released. Bright light filled his vision, accompanied by more vivid cursing, and Haru's addled brain took a moment to appreciate the colorfulness of everyone's vocabulary recently. It made for good reference, if he ever decided to pen a book about pirates in the future.

"Haru!"

It was Taichi, knelt in front of him, shortsword in hand and an expression of raw and panicked concern written across his face, as easy to read as a fairy tale for children. Behind him he could hear the scuffles of more feet, more people, and what had once been a moment of turnabout for Xifang became an unprecedented ambush from Nan Fang. 

"Haru, are you alright?" Suddenly Riichi was there, staring into his face with concern.

"Poison...in the...arrow," he managed to gasp out, biting his tongue to stay awake. Taichi inhaled sharply, and Riichi let out a click of his tongue in annoyanceーat their adversaries' evil, he hoped, and not his own stupidity. 

"Gabriel!" Kanon's shout reverberated, a ring of an instrument, pure and powerful, across the chaotic scuffling. "Gabriel, gather the other three and protect them! Riichi-san, do you have a _jiéshi_ with you?!"

"I do," Riichi was already pulling it out of the pouch at his side, kneeling next to Haru's prone figure. Taichi stood, and his old friend (no matter how much he denied it) took the other man's place, hands already glowing with a faint magic light. He was already beginning the process, even before Kanon could bark more orders.

"I forgot...you could do...magic," he said hoarsely, trying to muster a grin. "You...bragged about it...a lot..."

"And you never believed me, even when you left Nan Fang to resume your travels," Riichi said, voice taut. "But I suppose the time has come to prove you wrong, yet again." Haru gave a weak laugh, the energy in him slowly fading as the poison continued to course through him.

Around him the sounds of fighting continued, Kanon shouting and Taichi cursing under his breath, and Gabriel giving a loud warning now and then. The tide of the fighting seemed to have turned, if the anger and slight panic creeping into the voices of the two warriors from Xifang was any such indication, and Haru felt his languid state slowly lapse from the dizziness and fever of poison to that of simply fatigue. Opening his eyes a fraction, he noted the beads of sweat on Riichi's brow, causing him to worry.

"Don'tー" _push yourself,_ he wants to say, but the words are garbled and curtained by the remaining effects of the concoction left in his veins, and he can only end the sentence with an exhausted sigh. And yet, as if knowing what he had been trying to say, Riichi shook his head, muttering, "This is hardly a feat for an instructor serving the royal family." It was a very Riichi-like thing to say, Haru thought with bemusement. 

And then the next moment, Kanon gave a shrill scream that tore through the gray air, like the call of a very infuriated bird of prey. There was a flash of light, a different one from the one surrounding the girl, and Riichi gave a hiss as the flow in the air suddenly amplified, making Haru's skin crawl. The sudden disturbance seemed to cause the teacher pain, yet he grit his teeth and continued the healing process as if nothing had just happened. His face was terribly pale, and Haru wanted to tell him to stop, but he couldn'tーit wasn't just the poison now, he realized. There was another presence, vaguely familiar, and when he heard the voice he knew that the odds, which had been spinning in Nan Fang's favor for what seemed like a good moment, had once again swung its pendulum back to Xifang.

"Michelle," snarled the voice named Chabo, and Haru's blood ran cold. "Wonderful of you to join us."

* * *

Ryu's mind was going through a series of transitions: blood-red fury to very real, heart-stopping panic, and then back to fury. It was mostly fury, and he remembered the phrase "red with rage", and a tiny portion of his mind, disconnected from the terror that was his current situation, marveled at the way his vision actually seemed tinted with a color of rust, like dried bloodーand not from the fires, he knew. The direction he was facing, due to the magic he had managed as he and Koki wove through the village, water streaming after them like a loyal dog, was mostly free of fires, and also completely gray with smoke and residue from the carcasses of the buildings.

But nothing, not a single sight in the burnt out husk of the capital, came close to making him choke on his own rage than the sight of those two Xifang goons, the ones in the garden of Lunar Shades, standing above Koki's toppled form, each with a weapon in hand. One of them, a man with pinkish blonde hairーlikely the mage who had been using the distortion spellーstood triumphantly atop the redhead, as if the boy were some sort of catch, some sort of prey he had caught, and was currently pinning to the ground, rendering him immobile.

The other person, a handsome man with hair as wild as a lion's mane, all pulled towards the back, spared the red-haired youth a glance, before leveling his sword at Ryu. "Last time we met," he hissed, his face contorted with barely repressed fury, "You stabbed me straight in the fucking arm, you little _bastard._ " Ryu could see his grip on the _dadao_ tighten, a testament to his rage. But Ryu could hardly care; he himself was barely able to hold back, to prevent himself from pulling his _katana_ out of its sheath and swinging it into an arc, to cut the two down. 

And yet he knew he couldn'tーnot with his friend lying there so vulnerable, neck completely exposed to the Xifang warriors. Koki's eyes blazed with an anger of their own, but the flames were marred, Ryu knew, by fearーfear for his safety, and likely Ryu's as well, because Koki was unbearably kind when he should have been prioritizing himself. And he wasn't, he thought, with a touch of ice-cold fear, like the hand of death itself, aware enough of danger to realize when and where and who he should be most worried aboutーit was his friends, the people he showed care for, that seemed to occupy his concerns, never himselfーand if he did, never enough. 

The man standing above Koki tilted his head of pink-blonde hair, eyes posing an unspoken question, before his lips began to curve up into the makings of a sadistic and delighted smile. "Ohhh," he exclaimed, hands making exaggerated gestures of realization, one fist plopping down comically into the other hand, palm open. "I get it~, you can't attack us with this little brat here." Giving Ryu a smile that could have been mistaken as friendly, he crouched down, taking his foot off of Koki's back, and grabbed a fistful of wine-red hair. It ran through his hands like a river of red velvet, unmistakably soft and smooth, the traces of soot mixed in from the air hardly enough to mask its delicateness. Koki gave a hiss of pain as the still-smiling man pulled his head up, hard, yanking his hair like one did with the lead of a horse, face still sunny and cheerful. Staring thoughtfully at the redhead's face, ignoring Ryu's half-repressed snarl of outrage, he murmured, "So you're the little 'forsaken child' who saw past my magic and then proceeded to stab me, huh?" 

Ryu felt his blood go from boiling to ice cold in a matter of seconds, and he had to bite his teeth not to shout out in panic. But the only response the smiling mage received was a look loaded with confusion and frustration. 

"Is that supposed to be an insult?" Koki spat, hissing in pain from the grip on his hair. 

"Ohh, so you don't know what that is?" The sunny countenance on the magic user's face hadn't budged an inch, in contrast to the stormy expression worn by his companion, who muttered, "You _know_ that's not the proper term for it..." The mage's only response was to give a cheerful shrug, staring with renewed interest between Koki and Ryu. "What?" His face lit up even further. "Do _you_ not know?" He was looking at Ryu now, his smile, by all accounts, childish and innocentーbut to Ryu's eyes, it was simmering with malice and sadistic delight, as if their adversary knew full well that this was a conversation he had wanted to avoid.

"You _do_ know, don't you?" The pinkish blonde's voice was full of unmasked glee when Ryu averted his eyes, trying to keep his gaze decidedly _not_ on Koki at the inquiry.

"Ryu, whatー" Koki cut himself off with a small cry when the mage shook his hair, pulling even harder to force the redhead's head up so he could see Ryu more clearly. 

"Is this one of those 'keep a secret to protect' things?" the magic user giggled. "That's so cute~" He laughed when Ryu took one step forward, fury radiating from his entire body. _I'm going to cut this little_ shit _down,_ Ryu thought, not even bothering to try and hide his killing intent, which radiated off of him like the smoke from the fires. _I'm going to make him sorry._

Gritting his teeth, he forced out, "Get off of him. Right. _Now._ " Drawing his blade, he held it up to the point at the still-smiling magic userーthe glee on his face stood in stark contrast to the horror on Koki's. The mage noticed, and he smiled, down at the redhead, saying in a soft voice that carried to Ryu, dripping with faux sympathy, "Are you worried for him? Don't worry, we won't kill him too gruesomely. _He's_ not what we're here for, anyway."

"Noire, cut it out." his companion muttered, nudging the mage. "Don't say a bunch of unnecessary crap right now; you know that's not what we're here for."

"Aw, Pierre, quit spoiling my fun."

"If I don't, then you know who sure as hell will, and they won't warn you nicely, y'knowー"

Taking advantage of their momentary opening, Ryu had dove forward, sparks of light filling the vision of everyone here as he held the _jiéshi_ at his side, the spell turning their surroundings a brilliant shade of blinding white. His _katana_ was already unsheathed; without a moment's hesitation, he swung it at the wild-haired swordsman, the one the mage had called Pierre. The Xifang warrior's eyes were blocked by his arm, which he had thrown out unwittingly to shield his face from the sudden glare, and Ryu felt the sword's blade strike something a little heavier than just thin air, a scream of rage telling him his aim had hit true. Taken off guard by his companion's cry, as well as the abrupt light show, the mage called Noire had loosened his grip on Koki's hairーan opening that the redhead noticed, even if his body wasn't trained to do something about it. There was a flash of movement as Koki threw the magic user off him, elbowing himー _hard,_ by the sounds of itーin the chin to push him off completely, hand reaching into his robe as if to pull out...something. Ryu didn't see, because the next moment a blast of energy hit him square in the chest, sending him flying.

He wound up on his back, disorientedーhis head had slammed hard into the ground, and for a split second his vision saw black. Blinking his eyes, trying to regain his surroundings, he began to pull himself back upーonly to quickly roll out of the way as a large blade came hurtling down at him, drops of blood flying; not his, he realized, but that of Pierre, whose arm was still steady, hand gripping his sword, even as blood oozed out of the wound Ryu had made and landed on the asphalt below, leaving tiny splotches of blood. 

"Fucking _again,_ " hissed the swordsman between gritted teeth, handsome face twisted in pain. "Seriously, what is _with_ you and going for my arm?!"

Ryu lunged forward, swinging his _katana_ about as fast as he could, trying to fight back the ringing in his ears. He could feel a trickle of blood running down his head, disorienting him and making his senses duller than he would have preferred. Pierre's movements were slower than the last time they had fought, owing to the wound on his arm making his swings just slow enough that Ryu managed to block and dodge, occasionally catching the other's blade on his own to deal a vicious parry. Behind Pierre's oncoming figure, he could see Koki dodging attacks from an infuriated Noire, nimbly rolling and jumping back whenever a blast of wind, or energy, or fire, came hurtling towards him, thinned down to the shape of a projectile, like an arrow. Koki was agile enough, leaping out of the way of the attacks and rolling to his feet, but, Ryu realized with horror, if Kanon was right and he _was_ a forsaken child, then the continued battle with the mage would be dangerous. But he couldn't very well have them switch opponents either, and he didn't want to put the red-haired boy in front of this sword-swinging maniac, whose injury was angering him even further than the time before. 

It was that moment, that small opening where his mind wandered in its concern for the other, as sudden and warm as it was, that would lead to the next; it would prove to be one of the biggest regrets of Ryu's lifetime. With his mindーit had only been for a second, but it had happenedーoccupied, he didn't register fast enough the flashing blade, coming in from a different angle than his foe's usual patternsーthey hadn't been one-note, but he had begun to recognize a certain pattern of sorts in the way this man responded to his opponent in his attacks, which had left him with more room to maneuver. But the next attack felt completely unprecedentedーat the very least, when he felt a sharp flash of pain carry down his left leg, he didn't even register that he had been hurt until his body had hit the ground, warm blood pouring out of the large wound with a suddenness that suggested it, too, had not been able to recognize the abruptness with which it had appeared. 

The pain then _really_ hit, right afterwardsーsharp, terrible signals, flashing in his mind with an urgency that nearly split his head openーwhich, he thought wryly, had just happened; the blood had not yet even dried. He had been injured before, but this one cut deep; deep enough, he thought through the red throb of pain, that had the swordsman dug any deeper his blade would have hit bone and potentially severed Ryu's leg, at the right angle. But the hit, as deep as it was, had been awkward, something neither of them had anticipated, and this was the end result. Biting his tongue to keep from screaming, Ryu dug his nails into his palms, bit his tongue, all in an effort to keep himself up, muttering in his pain-addled head _stay awake, Kyogoku, stay **awake**_.

In the distance he heard Koki shriek something, in a voice he hadn't known the red-haired youth could makeーit was _his_ name, he realized, being echoed in those pained cries, the sound raw as if the other's heart was being gouged out. 

" _Ryu! RYU!_ "

Feeling the swordsman loom over him, blade poised to finish the job as he tried to battle the intense pain threatening to split his entire being, Ryu thoughtーas admittedly out of place as he knew it wasーthat, even when he sounded like his heart was being twisted in his chest, even when he was shouting to the point his normally soothing voice was hoarse, the red-haired boy sounded like the most beautiful thing in the world, his voice itself about the only thing, right now, he could glean any comfort from, as his vision blackened despite the protests of his will, slipping into sleep.

* * *

Koki had heard the phrase "mind going blank" before, but he hadn't actually known what that truly felt like until he saw the inhumanly large spray of blood come pouring out of Ryu's leg, enough that he was afraid that the sword-wielder from Xifang had torn it clean off the rest of his body. He forgot everything: the fire, the threat of the two warriors, the splitting headache that kept growing in pitch each time the mage unleashed yet another torrent of spells on him, the blood oozing here and there from his own wounds, scrapes and cuts from when the spells nicked him, each causing a painful amount of damage that seemed to impress the mage casting them himself, if his small, sadistic cries of awe were any such indication. 

All he could doーhe wasn't even thinking at that point, only moving forward as if his body was controlled by something elseーwas try and rush to his friend's side, forgetting the very real and present threat beside him, who certainly weren't about to let him do so, much less move at all.

The redhead hadn't even made it two steps when he felt something hard kick him, square in the stomach, making him keel over. When he tried to regain the balance in his legs, they were kicked out from underneath him, and he stumbled over ungracefully, pain rushing anew as his palms scraped themselves when he threw them forward, desperate to keep himself from falling completely in some way or another. But another burst of pain bloomed in his headーanother magic spell, he realized, was coming. He didn't know what the hell a "forsaken child" was supposed to be (Ryu had looked like he had known, but Koki banished the thought from his head as quickly as it had come), but he wasn't so dumb he couldn't guess it had something to do with his...aversion, it seemed, to the power radiating off of the _jiéshi._ _Why_ this smirking magic user knew about his condition (whatever he was supposed to call it; he didn't knowーhe had just learned this about himself not long ago!) he had no idea, but that wasn't even in his list of top ten concerns. All ten slots were taken up with worry for Ryu, who lay prone at the feet of the swordsman. The curved blade was at his throat, but the soldier didn't seem to be making any moves to finish him offーthe mere thought of him doing so made Koki's blood run cold. 

"Oh dear," The voice was laced with mock sympathy, and a pair of bright and sparkling eyes peered into his own, which he was sure were burning with bitterness and desperation. Smiling an angel's smile at him, Noire (at least, that's what he heard the other call him) gently reached over and patted Koki's head in a condescending manner, as if to sooth a small child. "No weapon, and you're clearly not trained to fight...but you've been raised as a _normal person,_ right? You think you're just another one of _those,_ those silly fools running ragged because their town is burning." Koki's anger had begun to hit a boiling point, and he debated trying to punch the mage; he didn't care if the attempt would look pathetic, but the man's tone was beginning to arouse in him a type of hate he didn't know he had been capable of. "Well," laughed the magic user, tilting his head, "In the case of your performance skills, you certainly _are_ a normal personーyou were surrounded by people who all made you that way. But there's _someone_ here who knows a little better than you, little forsaken child~" 

"'Forsaken child' is an annoying name to say over and over," This comment came from the warrior whose sword was still hovering over RyuーPierre, if Koki had heard right. "Just use the term Nan Fang always uses, why don't you? In terms of truth, it's probably more accurate than that fairy tale tripe, and you know that."

"You mean the _niliu?_ " Noire sighed, shaking his head in what seemed to be disappointment, clearly directed at his cohort. "Pierre, where would the fun be if we simply _told_ the child the truth of his condition from the start? Might as well throw in a little intrigue to keep him interested, don't you think?"

"What I _think_ is that you have some awful taste, you sadistic little teddy lover."

"I will gladly take that as a compliment."

Listening to them, one would think this were a conversation between two squabbling close friendsーwhich they very well may be, but Koki couldn't see them as anything more than hated figures of terror, who wouldn't let him run up to his still friend, surrounded in a steadily growing puddle of blood. He could see the pale whiteness of his skin; he knew that it wasn't his natural state, that he was too pale, and if these two didn't _shut up_ and get out of his way, then his friend wouldー

As if those thoughts alone had suddenly pushed him, hard, on the back, Koki was lunging towards Noire, forgetting all his pain, forgetting the splitting headache or the fact that the mage had a spell ready to unleash on himーhe didn't care. With a speed that shocked even himself, he pulled out the good luck charm under his robesーthe forgotten memento that he carried around, which he couldn't really christen as a "memento" when the memories it carried were under lock and key. Even if he couldn't wield the thing...even if the others were obviously much more skilled and powerful than he...

He didn't care; screw those worries, those concerns. He didn't waste time trying to build momentum, merely pushing the blade forward as soon as it was in his hand, the makeshift sheath he had created for it as an improvisation coming undone with the force. Under the pink blonde hair, the mage's eyes went wide with genuine surpriseーof course, Koki thought bitterly, a "normal person", whatever that meant to these two, wouldn't go around carrying a blade hidden under the front of their robes. 

But a cornered animal will bite, no matter how big or strong their foe is, regardless of whether they are the prey, the weak ones. There was a strong resistance, a pushing force as the blade sank into the magic user's shoulder, and he felt hot drops of blood splatter across his face. For a split second the mage's face twisted into that of pure agony, before it contorted to one of fury. There was a burst of light, and Koki's body flew back to crash into the wall of a nearby building. The burnt and damaged beams couldn't stand the force with which he crashed into them, and he felt the wood crack at his back. Blood flew from his nose and he slumped forward, coughing up even more blood as he tried to breathe again. 

To his left, something small and silver came flying, and it took him a moment to realize that it was the bottom half of his blade, snapped in two. In his chest, he felt a twist of pain different than the one he was suffering from now. He could hear Noire's enraged shrieks, an inhuman sound that terrified himーit was the howl of an injured beast. Pierre was trying to press against the wound, face pale, but his companion pushed him away, shaking his head in agony, steps uncertain as the blood poured out of his shoulder, and Koki saw, with a mix of horror and shock, that he hadn't quite hit the shoulder so much as the space between shoulder and neck, just short of breaking the man's collarbone. Head pounding with pain from the impact and the spell, he tried to drag himself to his feetーhe needed to get to Ryu.

"Noire, Noire," He heard the swordsman say, voice full of concern and fear. "Hold still, let me see it. Use your magic to slow the blood flow; don't worry, backup is coming soon. You're all right, you're all right, calm down, calm down..." The crazed screams of the magic user dwindled, and the faint glow of the _jiéshi_ could be seen. But those weren't Koki's concerns, and he tried to drag his broken body across the ground, ignoring the blood from his wounds, from his face. Not even aware of the trail of blood in his wakeーhis own bloodーhe tried to make his way over to his friend, pain making his vision spark and blur. 

"Ryu," he whispered, the name lost in the gargle of his throat at the buildup of blood. Spitting it out unceremoniously to the ground, he murmured, "Ryu, _Ryu._ " _Please, please, please, be okay. Zhuque, or Xuanwu, or anyone, please, please don't let him die._

_ I'll do anything, so please,  _ please, _save him._

"What are you two doing?"

The voice suddenly came, shot like an arrow into the midst of their bloodshed. The shock was palpable in both the Xifang warriors facesーthe swordsman, however, looked somewhat relieved. It was an odd voice, so gentle and out of place in the midst of the chaos, and Koki's disoriented mind could only think that it was a rather charming voice, charismatic and smooth. The kind that could hold infinite gentleness and great strength at the same moment, but could also become a deadly knife at other times, freezing the listeners' blood to ice. It was a voice that was hard to grasp, but the aura if radiated smelled strongly of authorityーmuch like Kanade's, the redhead thought fuzzily, still trying to crawl to Ryu. Kanade's kind and charming voice held a natural gentleness and allure, but it also hinted at a great strength and authority that he could naturally command. This voice was extremely similar, to a disturbing degree.

"Dory," Pierre breathed, his face full of trust and relief. It was such a gentle expression on the wild man's countenance that it nearly stopped the redhead. "Oh, thank Baihu, you're here. Is Juukiya with you?"

Koki couldn't see him from this angleーthe man was behind him, and the redhead didn't have the leeway to look, not when it wasn't the greatest concern on his mind at the moment. But he could hear the sounds of approaching footsteps, light and assured, brimming with an ease that was out of place in the desolate landscape that was the capital. 

"Juukiya, unfortunately, is dealing with that mayor, Ayanokoji Aoi, and that meddlesome traveler from Beifang, Kyogoku Takato. It seems Seiya had a little more trouble with the duo than he had bargained, and they had to use one of our...tigers." There was a hint of disgust, just a small bit, in the man's voice as he said that last part, almost as if he didn't want to acknowledge whatever he had been talking about as such. "What happened?"

"Noire got injured," Pierre exclaimed hurriedly. "I did, too, but not as bad. The little red-haired brat got him in a pretty bad place, and if it had been any higher he would be dead by nowー"

"I will transport you back to the palace," the man called Dory said quietly, "But first, allow me to deal with this matter here. It is, after all, what we are here for."

"Of course."

Koki had only been half-listening to their conversation, so the last part eluded himーhe was almost near Ryu, his hand barely brushing the tips of the other's fingers, their hands almost close enough to touch. Summoning his last bit of strength to push himself upward, he righted his body and grabbed his friend's arm, trying to wrap it over his shoulders clumsily, his fingers unsteady and his top half swaying precariously with the blood loss.

"It's okay," he murmured, "It's okay, Ryu, I've got you, we're gonna be fine; let's go find your brother and the others...they have to be here, someone has to be here, it's okay..."

He could hear the crunch of gravel and the light noises of shoes on stone, but he ignored it, even as the sounds grew louder and nearer. 

"It's okay...it's okay...I can find help, at least...I'm sorry I can't fight, I'm sorry, I'm sorry...I'm sorry..."

The footsteps had stopped, and he could feel someone at his back, watching him as he still attempted to stand, supporting the other's weight.

"It's my fault you got hurt, I'm sorry...I'm sorry...Ryu, Ryu, _please_..."

"You poor thing." 

It took him a moment, dazed as he was and rambling away under his breath, to realize that the soft statement, loaded with genuine sympathy and concern, was aimed at _him,_ by the person who, judging from the reactions of the other two, was likely not on Koki's side.

There was a rush of soft air as the man knelt next to him, and through his hazy vision Koki caught a view of the man's visage; he was breathtakingly handsome, with a face that must look extraordinarily kind when he smiled. His hair was short, colored a bright blonde, and his brow was creased as he stared down at the redhead with an almost pained expression, taking him off guard. He didn't even _know_ this...Dory, person. Hanging loosely over his robes was a long cape, the kind emperors wore in battle. It was pitch black, like the rest of his garb, the only difference being perhaps the shades of each garment. Koki stiffened when he felt something light touch him, softly, under the chin to tilt his face up, and he realized that it was this person's hand, and he was now being very carefully scrutinized.   


"I can't dawdle for too long, I'm afraid," the man said, voice still soft, "One of my dearest companions is injured, after all. But, and I am sorry if this pains you, I am afraid I must ask that you come with us. Preferably in peace, but there are...other ways to arrange for your cooperation, I fear."

Koki couldn't understand half of what this man was saying, but he knew immediately that the last part was a threat...and a threat could be directed towards Ryu, who lay prone and unmoving, breathing faint. Or Kaiji and Riku, even if they weren't here, or any of the others, and suddenly he felt fear make his throat nearly close up, his senses finally catching up to the terror before him.

Why hadn't he _realized?_ The deference with which Pierre had referred to this Dory person had been the respect one showed for their superiorーtheir leader. Who was wearing an outfit not unlike the ones he had seen pictures of emperors wear, in books and paintings, in tapestries and on pottery.

This was him. The leader of Xifang, the emperor of a kingdom that had attacked them, out for blood, not once butーcounting this, right nowーtwice. Koki felt all his blood freeze, his dulled mind renewed with his fear.

"WhーWhy," Koki stuttered, grip on his friend tightening. He had to protect Ryu at all costs.

"Hm?"

"Whyーwhy do I have to come with you? What do you want?"

Dory stared at him for a beat longer, and Koki worried for a second he may have said something to upset him. After a while, the man, clad in all black and voice as gentle as it was before, responded, "If you wish to know, then you'll have to cooperate." _Well?_ The question hung there, unspoken, and Koki tried to swallow the idea that, for some bizarre and unknown reason, the leader of Xifang was after _him,_ of all people.

Normally, no, _definitely,_ he would have protested. Would've run for help, or fought, kicking and screaming. Would have maybe even cried out, in his desperation. And every inch of Koki's former self, the small and insecure boy with no concrete memories to rely on, wanted to do just that. He couldn't go to Xifang, not on his own, not with these people.

But there was Ryu, kind and thoughtful and sometimes cold but always gentle Ryu, who hid his embarrassment and delight by acting tough, who pretended not to worry but actually worried the most, who saved him and laughed with him and comforted him. One of the kindest people he had met, and surely one of the kindest he would ever meet, even if he met the whole world. His first kiss...and maybe his last. Torn between despair and fear and determination, Koki glared straight into Dory's eyes, which still regarded him with infinite gentleness. 

"Fine," he said, voice low, "I'll go. But," Swallowing, he grasped the man's sleeve, trying not to let fear make his voice waver. "Please, _please,_ save my friend. If you can't fix him, then at least make it so he has enough time for someone to find him. If you do that, I'll go with you, no questions asked. _Please._ " Bowing his head, he bit his quivering lip; he didn't think he would be able to talk without crying, if he kept going any further.

There was a beat of thoughtful silence, and then, in a simple voice, the man replied, "Very well. I'll heal his wounds and recover the blood, enough that, until your friends or someone else finds him, he will be safe." Behind them, the swordsman made a small noise of protest, which Dory halted with a hand. Watching the sudden glow of _jiéshi,_ which the man had pulled out of the front of his robes, cape slightly askew on his shoulders, Koki stared down at his friend's pale face with regret, glad he would be safe, but also regretting everythingーhis weakness, his stupidity. All his fault.

_ I'm sorry, _ he thought, for what felt like the hundredth time that day. _I'm sorry, Ryu; I'm sorry everyone...I'm so, so sorry._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hm. That ended on a sad note for me. What about the rest of you? No? Really? Hmmmm....
> 
> So the story is about...halfway through? Ish. I have the whole story planned but in terms of how to split the chapters...hmmm, that's a different story.
> 
> Anyway, hope you enjoyed the new chapter! Have a nice day.


	24. Chapter 24

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Had to rush some things 'cos I wasn't inclined to stick it all in one chapter (and that would've prolonged this even longer than necessary), but hey again, and sorry for the wait. Classes have begun and I have been downright unwell for who knows how long (ahh yes, health), so updates will have more space between them. 
> 
> BLOOD WARNING: At some point Kanon loses all patience and begins to actually straight-up commit murder. One of those [redacted] had the unfortunate luck of trying to cross her when she was in an exceptionally foul mood. So it gets slightly gory (it has been up to this point in certain places but still...).

_Less than an hour_ _ago_

"For the record," Kanade heard Kanon say, "I don't wish for Xifang to summon those horrid creatures again. I'm only saying that if they do, it would be a valuable chance to understand the more complicated mechanisms behind their creation." She had been repeating the words, mostly to herselfーhad been repeating them until she had seen the flare Riichi had set off, a summons for assistance, and run off, leaving Kanade and his two retainers to deal with the west side of town where they had headed. The fires had mostly thinned out, and imperial soldiers stood here and there, guiding others to safety. Seiichiro hadn't paid much mind to the young woman's ramblingsーit had mostly been intended for Gen, who seemed to have misunderstood Kanon's plan for splitting up as an assurance that those monsters from the attack on the palace would show up again. 

"And we are automatically assuming this is an attack?" Gen had askedーhe wasn't so optimistic as to believe that such a huge fire, and so sudden at that, could just magically _appear._ Kanade suspected he was only voicing the most positive (although the situation wasn't very positive either way) option, in some vain hope that it really would be just that.

"Yes," Kanon had retorted, her response as whip-quick and scathing as always. "Unless Nan Fang has some _very_ unfortunate issues with fire safety and hazards, then I would think that such a large fire couldn't have possibly blazed through the entire capital _naturally_ without someone noticing something prior to it getting this large." Gen had only bitten his lip, expression telling Kanade he feared the worst as much as their sarcastic companion did. But, despite Kanon's concerns, they didn't encounter any such threats, allowing them to focus their efforts solely on extinguishing the flames and the evacuation of the people. 

All had been going well, until they heard the screaming.

It had been faint, and immediately Kanade had rushed in their direction, smoke making his eyes water and his lungs ache. Behind him he could hear Seiichiro's steady footsteps as he ran after Kanade, and Gen's calls for him to be on his guard echoed throughout the mostly silent town. Kanon had followed hot on their heels, nimbly dodging bits of debris left strewn across the ground. The screams had cut off by the time they had reached the location from which they had echoedーor, at least, they had _thought_ they were coming from. But there were no longer any sounds that could be heard, not from anywhere, and Kanade suddenly felt a chill as he realized that they were standing in a very open and silent spaceーa small plaza of sortsーwith nothing around save for the rising smoke and soot; it was abnormally quiet, as if the plaza was holding its breath, showing no indication of any life, much less someone who could have produced such bloodcurdling (faint as they had been) screams.

Throwing each other glances with only small flicks of their eyes, the group silently spread across the plaza, drawing their weapons. Kanade's hand balanced an elegantly designed rapier that had once belonged to his mother; Seiichiro also held a rapier, and Gen's hands wrapped around the hilt of his _jian_ blade. Kanon had unsheathed a saber, the glow around her waist pouch, hidden by her cloak, indicating her _jiéshi_ was also battle-ready. Kanade's own was secured in a small drawstring pouch tied inconspicuously around his neck, which he hid under the front of his robes. Eyes roving up and down the buildings, he squinted his eyes, trying to capture any minute movements, any suspicious sounds. The only thing they could hear was the soft tapping of their shoes against stone, every once in a whileーotherwise, they made sure to create as little sound as possible, making the whole area quieter than a grave. 

"........."

"........"

"........."

"........ah."

To his left, he saw Kanon suddenly freeze, mouth opened wide as the small sound slipped from between her pink lips. He saw Gen's eyes go wide with shock, eclipsing to horror, and Seiichiro jolted forward, body ready to hurtle into battle. 

Kanade could _feel_ the presence before he saw itーcould sense the malice roiling from behind him, so thick it made the air heavy. If it were a smell, he thought, it would be the repugnant one of rotting fleshーhe had come across a dead deer once, when he had been exploring the woods as a child, and had happened across its mangled corpse, lying pitifully in a patch of green, flies buzzing around its decaying remains. Sympathy had come after the disgust at finding such a deformed corpseーthe feeling was similar now, and he had to stop his body from flying into action, instead forcing it to turn slowly around as his vision was filled with the sight of a demon straight from the depths of hell itself.

He hadn't gotten a glimpse of the monsters who had all but mauled his father to death, their poison (whatever it had been) seeping into his flesh and maiming him, marring the skin like rot on tree bark. Someone had mentioned they resembled tigers, but the resemblance was too faint; the only thing they may have had in common were the silhouettesーtheir shape was similar enough, nothing more. Even the faint patterns similar to stripes looked like deformed markings running across the mangled poisonous body, which was a black a shade closer to purple, but in a bubbling and vicious sort of manner that put into mind decay rather than a twilight sky. 

"Well this is just wonderful," he heard Gen hiss behind him. Kanade wondered if Kanon would show any indication of agreement (it had been her who had wished for them to come across the things, after all), but she remained, surprisingly enough, completely silent. The beast's jaws were dripping with blood, almost indistinguishable against the murky colors of its peltーfrom somewhere behind he could hear Seiichiro's sharp intake of breath at the sight. The blood gleamed a sinister red, obviously fresh and too great an amount for the victim to be found alive. If they could even, he thought with roiling nausea, _find_ them alive.

So this had been the source of the screamsーin his head the thought flashed bitterly, torn between fear and rage. He prayed they would find someone, safe and sound, but their chances were looking (as much as he hated to admit it) more bleak by the second. 

"Kanon-san," Seiichiro's voice was surprisingly level. Backing up with weapon in hand, Kanade kept his eyes trained on the beast in front of him, while also trying to pick up the conversation from behind. "Just so we are all clear...you want us to _capture_ these things?"

"I may have said that when I had a less concrete image of what we are facing, alright?" Kanon snapped, "And I may have very poorly miscalculated how this would go but if any of you guys think you would've known any better than me you were very welcome to speak up when you could have!" The snappish tone of her voice couldn't mask the slight quaver of her words.

"So...do we proceed, then?" Kanade asked, leveling his rapier as he regarded the monster's movements; it was showing no signs of suddenly attacking, seemingly as startled (if the thing had emotions, assuming) by the four of them by they had been of it.

"....ugh," Kanon let out a grumble. "As much as I hate to change a plan at the last minute, I'm thinking..." There was a small pause, the square which they all stood suddenly going still like a pocket of quiet. The faint hum of _jiéshi_ pulsed nearby, and he tensed, sensing before hearing what Kanon would say next.

""Kill them.""

"...huh?" 

"Did one of you two say somethー" Kanade began, before something suddenly leapt at him, sudden and swift and smaller than the beast, which had bounded forward, but in a different direction, away from his own, towards one of his companions. He didn't have time to check, however; he tried to dodge the sudden strike, a blade dancing through the air towards him seemingly from thin air, aimed straight at his midsection. He managed to twist away from the worst of the blow, but the blade nicked the thin armor he wore, throwing him off balance. Using the momentum to roll even further away from the blade, which was coming in again from a second blow, he tried to regain his footing as soon as he had managed to avoid the attack, lifting his blade to meet the other. Another rapier, gleaming with menace, came hurtling towards his sword to meet it clean on, the two colliding in a shower of sparks and light. He couldn't focus on the owner's face, too disoriented and caught off guard by the suddenness of the attack to register what his foe looked like. Pushing back the other's rapier with all his strength, he quickly retreated backwards, blade held upward as he tried to calm himself down to regain a sense of his surroundings. 

From the side, he could see Kanon throwing spell after spell at the beastーit had decided, it seemed, to target her, and she was giving it hell for trying. The bright flashes of light kept throwing it into disarray, illuminating for a second Gen locked in a fierce struggle with a young man, whose hair was a light pink color a shade darker than the pink of cherry blossoms in the spring, a scimitar in hand which he met Gen's _jian_ with head-on. 

Suddenly he felt something heavy kick him in the arm, throwing him off balance and nearly making him drop his sword from the shock and the pain. As he tried to regain his footing, a voice from overhead, cold and elegant and chillingly beautiful, said, "It's rude to take your eyes off of your opponent in a fight, you know."

Kanade glowered at the figure in front of him, who was slowly coming into focusーit was a man shorter than himself, with broad shoulders and a finely chiseled face, under straw blonde hair that threw a striking contrast with his wardrobe, which was colored all black. If he smiled, Kanade thought in the back of his mind, he probably would look like a very pleasant, kindly young man, but there was a coldness in his eyes as he stared down at the prince that sent a chill down his spine. The insignia of Xifang hung from his cloak, a fierce tiger wrought in silver and dancing around the traditional symbol for the west. Authority radiated off of him like the smoke from the flames, and Kanade knew, with one glance, that this man was of higher rank than any of the other assassins he had met in the palaceーthe clothing he wore, his bearing, the positioning of the insignia...all of them were beginning to hint at Kanade that this wasn't just _a_ high ranker of Xifang, but someone much, much more important than that, a thought that began to fill him with more fury than dread.

Steadying his sword between them, he responded, the temperature in his voice dropping several hundreds of degrees, "I find it funny that you lecture _me_ of etiquette when it is your kingdom who has decided to attempt to burn our precious capital to the ground. Or, perhaps, does Xifang have different rules for acting as proper guests?" Giving the other man his most scornful glare, he continued, "Perhaps then I will visit _your_ capital and see it burnt to the ground." He saw his opponent's eyes flash with anger for a moment, subsiding quickly to retain their earlier calm, the blaze of fire extinguished by chips of ice. There was a pause where he opened his mouth, as if to retort to Kanade's words, but before either of them could get a word in the man was suddenly diving to the side gracefully, movements as fluid as water. In his place stood Seiichiro, his rapier stabbing the space their foe had stood moments before.

"Kanade," Seiichiro rushed over, gently kneeling down and helping him to his feet. "Are you alright?"

"Quite," he responded, gently trying to reassure his friend, whose eyes were full of deep concern. "But I'm starting to wish I had worn stronger armor." A stab of pain ran through his sword arm, and he tried to shake it off with a strained laugh. On his friend's face he saw a flash of anger, which quickly subsided to a more calm, battle-ready expression as they both faced the man before them, swords at the ready, Kanade desperately trying to fight back the throbbing from the kickーthe man's shoes must have been part of some set of armor, or had been created with more than just leather or wood, judging from the pain. There had definitely been, Kanade thought with a grimace, a good deal of metal there.

The sounds of scuffling behind them grow, and their opponent's eyes widened slightly as his companion, the man with the pinkish hair, was thrown towards him, Gen savagely chasing him with a bloodied _jian,_ his own face covered in a fairly large scrape and blood coming out from under one of his sleeves. There were cracks in his armor as he fell in line with Kanade and Seiichiro, eyes glinting with triumph and fury, while his opponent rolled to hold himself up on his elbows and knees, coughing painfully as he tried to catch his breath.

"Oh dear," The man's voice is gentle, exceedingly more so when he sees his companion's wounds. "Daina, are you okay?"

"I'm fine, Dory," is the gasped response, "But I'm going to kill that raven-haired bastard if it's the last thing I do."

"Try it," spat Gen, lips curved in a sneer, "And see what happens to you next."

"Is that a challenge? Because I _will_ cut you to ribbons, you fox-like son of aー"

"Not if I cut you apart first, murderer."

" _Murderer?_ " The leader-like man's eyes narrowed. "You Nan Fang lot are one to talk, with how you turn a blind eye to the sufferings of those outside your kingdom just because you lack the interest in the resources _we_ rely heavily on."

Kanade swallowed. "Do you mean the _jiéshi?_ "

His only response was a snort of derision, making Gen visibly bristle, to the point he looked similar to a very violent and bloodied cat. Seiichiro's brow was creased as he gazed at their foes, expression contemplating and hard to read.

"'Do you mean the _jiéshi?_ '" Daina, as he had been called, parroted back in a mocking tone of voice. "Of _course_ that's what he means; we've been fighting to solve that problem and you lot are only making things _harder_ for us, and more people suffer! Can't you see that?" There was an earnest and pleading note in his words, running under the boiling and righteous fury of his tone. 

"Like you have any right or room to be preaching at us about righteousness and suffering," Gen sneered, "When you come to another kingdom and cut down their king when he refuses to comply with your outrageous demands."

" _What_ outrageous demands?! We sent only a few letters and the next we knew, it was _your_ king whoー"

"Daina."

"...I'm sorry, Dory." _Dory,_ Kanade thought, so that was his name, this powerful figure radiating authority before him. Yet there was nothing cowed in the way Daina bowed his head, only true shame, as if he felt immense personal guilt over the possibility of angering this figure, despite not fearing retribution for it.

"As _fascinating_ as your arguing is going over there," Kanon's voice suddenly cut through like an arrow; she was whaling on the monster with flashing spells that left it howling and clawing frantically as it tried to stop her, her saber flashing viciously as she cut into its pelt. From the monster's flank he could see numerous slashes, each oozing a sickly miasma that likely constituted the creature's loathsome "blood", and its movements were getting notably slower. Kanon's face was flushed, but she was fine as far as he could see. "If you three are going to _stop_ those two, then could you perhaps hurry it up? I can't keep this hideous thing entertained all night!" 

Just then a large sizzling noise, like that of a firework, went offーsomeone on the southern end of town had let loose a signal flare, a cry for help, and Kanon let out a string of colorful curses that left much to the imagination. Setting off another brilliantly flashy spell that knocked the beast to the side, she raised arms and, without an ounce of hesitation, stabbed her saber straight down into the creature's head from the side, ignoring the large gush of purplish goo that came gushing out, splattering across the pavement and her face and arms, like poisoned blood. Yanking her sword out, she began to furiously stab it, again and again, leaving both groups of men rather speechless as what had once been a ferocious monster slowly was reduced to a steaming mass of disfigured flesh and roiling poisonous mists. She continued that way, kicking and stabbing the thing until the steaming corpse (it had long been reduced to a corpse at this point) began to disintegrate, releasing a smell that made him want to retch. Kanon didn't seem to care; she leveled her sword straight at Doryーwho was watching impassivelyーand Dainaーwho looked terrifiedーsnarling, "I'm going to go and check on whoever set that off, so you three _take care_ of those two." Then she paused as she stared down at the steaming and almost completely vanished mass of the very unfortunate beast who had picked a fight with her, brow scrunching. "What...?" She leaned down to pick something up, and Kanade caught a glimpse of a strange, purplish glow before she suddenly withdrew her hand, as if she had been burned. 

"I'm afraid I can't let you have that," Dory's voice was calm, and on the ground Kanade saw the purplish glow expand, before the...thing left behind on the ground seemed to disintegrate, flakes of oddly colored ash rising to the sky. In the man's palm was a glowing stone, and Kanon looked for all the world like she was about to run up to Dory and maybe start a new fight with him.

"Kanon-san," Kanade said softly, "Go. We'll take care of these two." The young girl shot him a look loaded with warning and (to his surprise) worry. Smiling and nodding to reassure her, he inclined his head in the direction the flare had gone off, and after hesitating for no longer than six seconds, she was turning and running, bloodied saber still in hand. Kanade watched her go, before focusing his gaze on their two adversaries; Dory was watching Kanon too with a hint of interest, while Daina had refocused his gaze to glare at Kanade and his two retainers. The air between them was tense and strained, each waiting for when the other would make their move. In Kanade's mind he tried to predict how his opponents would move, desperate to protect his two friends and to capture at least one of the culprits responsible for his kingdom's distress.

The first one to move was Dory, but not in a way any of them expected. His head turned in a completely different direction, fingers around the stone clasped tight as he stared at some point in space, where something bright red was beginning to form and burn. _A fire message,_ he thought numbly, but from here he couldn't make out the words. Gen shot him a questioning glance, as if asking whether to take advantage of the opening to attack, but Daina's eyes hardened as he watched them, sword raised and ready to defend the other if they tried to launch themselves into battle. Dory's eyes still flitted to them from time to time, but...if his stone was in the process of receiving a fire message, then he wouldn't be able to defend himself with a spell. Before Kanade could rush forward with his rapier, he felt Seiichiro suddenly hold his blade out to stop Kanade's from moving forward, and when he gave his friend an inquiring look, the bespectacled retainer shook his head. _Don't,_ he was mouthing, _Don't test a royal's capacity with magic._

So his friend had caught on, too. It was true; if they had attacked when the stone hadn't been activated, then they would have given themselves an opening to start with, and Kanade could've activated his stone then, too. But now their foe, who was obviously of higher authority (and likely a royal as Seiichiro said, Kanade thought), had managed to get the flow going through the _jiéshi,_ putting _them_ at the disadvantage even though it was they who outnumbered their opponents, one of whom was (seemingly) distracted. 

Dory's eyes were glinting strangely as he turned from the fire messageーit was an oddly happy look, for lack of better phrase. And his two friends noticed too, judging from the stiffening of Gen's shoulders and the narrowing of Seiichiro's eyes. Daina was giving his leader an odd look, which the man returned with a nod that seemed almost...pleased. 

"It seems they managed to find it," he said, voice sounding eerily bright. "Those two."

"Really?" Daina groaned. "I _hate_ it when those two get the job done first; they won't shut up about it afterwards."

Dory chuckled, "Don't say that. Now that we have what we want, we can go."

"Go?" Gen asked incredulously, stepping forward. "Do you honestly think we'll let you leave as easily as you claim? After all _this?_ " He waved a hand at the decimated town around them, eyes blazing as strongly as the flames had been. His voice had a small quaver in it, and for once neither Kanade nor Seiichiro tried to calm their friend down, instead glaring at their foes just as strongly.

"Aw," Daina tilted his head, voice dripping with faux sympathy. "Look, I feel bad for your town, but this is partially your fault as well, you know? But we've found what we're here for, so we'll be leaving now. Sorry that we can't stick around more~"

Kanade didn't even bother to let him end that sentence, launching himself forward and stabbing out with his sword as swiftly and quickly as he could, emotions a red rush of rage in his mind. Yet the blade only hit empty air and the remains of mocking laughter, and he spun in a circle, confused; their foes were no longer there, not a trace left behind. He tried to fight down the urge to scream, biting his lip as he felt hot tears well up in his eyes; he managed to fight them down, but it must have shown, for when Seiichiro saw his face he wrapped his arms around his childhood friend's head without a single word.

"We'll get them, Kanade," his friend said softly, while Gen angrily kicked at the ground, pent up fury lost for its lack of direction to aim itself at. "We _will_ get them for this, soon. We'll win this, next time.

"We _have_ to."

* * *

_Present time, about an hour into the attack_

Takato knows how mages fight, being one himself, and having two as his companions (more now, counting the new faces he had come to familiarize himself with). He's familiarized himself with all sorts of techniques, how one with magic would fight if they preferred direct combat over magical, or vice versa, or was good at balancing each, and almost every variation in between that spectrum. Although he was not one to brag, he could say with an almost perfect amount of confidence that he was decently good at figuring out a mage's attack patterns, sometimes even in a first fight.

The duo in front of themーalong with their very ugly petーwas an enigma, in the truest sense of the word. For starters, only one of them was a mageーwhich should have made their job considerably easier. Except it didn't.

Seiya, the swordsman who had engaged Aoi first, before Juukiya's arrival, fought with the confidence of someone who had a magic user supporting them, but it wasn't the blind confidence of one who believed magic was a surefire solution and the perfect shield in a pinch. His moves were calculated to allow the mage as much room as possible to shoot every sort of attack at them from afar, ranging from blasts of flame to vicious spouts of water that quickly froze to ice, followed by angry gales of wind and blasts of angry, scalding light that did little physically but blinded them and slowed their movements. The _dao_ user would dart in during those openings, delivering attack after vicious attack. Aoi was nimble enough to dodge the worst of the onslaught, butーvery unfortunatelyーthe stupid tiger had decided to target _him,_ the non-magic user between him and Takato.

Yeah. The tiger. That was a part of the problem.

Takato had talked a big game about backup and friends watching each other's backs earlierーand he still planned on sticking to itーbut it was becoming increasingly harder to match his bluster, what with the glaringly obvious mismatch that had been set up between the two opposing groups. As vicious and speedy as Aoi could be (he would know; he had seen the smaller man demolish at least ten training dummies in the span of two minutes with his practice dagger alone), he was obviously struggling with the unpredictability of Juukiya's magic, the tiger's attack, and Seiya's uncannily perfect backup that was really beginning to annoy Takato to no end. 

_It should not,_ he wanted to complain, _be possible for someone to_ know _so perfectly where their mage is gonna attack, especially when they're not even **signaling** or anything to each other! _If he ever saw his teacher back in Beifang again, he was going to demand to know how such a phenomenon worked; if he remembered to ask by then, that is.

"Kyogoku!" Aoi's voice, snappish as always, broke him out of the loop of his thoughts. "You...deal...with...this...stupid... _thing!_ " Each word was accentuated by a furious grunt or hiss as he tried to maintain distance from the beast's jaws, continually attempting to circle behind the creature in order to attack it from the sides. Each attempt was cut short by Juukiya's blasts of magic, and as much as Takato would have loved to stop him, he was currently under the threat of being near-decapitated by Seiya, who occasionally backed off with just enough room for an attack from the mage to hit him. It was uncanny: he could have, by then, predicted when a magic attack was coming, simply by watching Seiya, but the problem was that the split second between Seiya retreating and the attack coming was practically nonexistent, faster than a blink. 

"I'd love to!" he shouted back, before breaking off into a yelp as the _dao_ nearly took off his nose, and he quickly used the long blade of his _odachi_ to drive the other swordsman back as he retreated. "But I can't break off...from this...clingy... _jerk!_ " The next few slashes fell in rapid succession after the other, driving Takato further away from Aoi, making it harder for him to rush in with support. _We're_ _dancing to their tune,_ he thought bitterly, biting his lip. _We can't get a single strategy or any of those plans Kanon and Ryu seem to love so much in._

Seiya gave a delighted laugh as he swung the _dao_ down, only missing Takato by a few centimetres as the latter dodged ungracefully yet again, diving to the side. It made the Xifang warrior sound unhingedーand knowing these guys, that assumption probably wasn't very far off the mark.

"Seiya," Juukiya's voice was reprimanding. "Stop toying with that idiot and finish him off already." Casually, he flung yet another missile of flames down in Aoi's direction, and the dagger wielder dodged, with admittedly more grace than Takato had pulled offーonly to have to dodge a little less artfully when he nearly found himself about to be torn down the middle by the beast's waiting claws. Half-shouting angry curses, Aoi continued to duck and dodge the onslaught of swipes, occasionally parrying back the combined duo of mage and monster's attacks with his daggerーan impressive feat, considering he was repelling powerful energy granted from nature itself (although he couldn't say for the tiger) with a simple blade of polished metal, not even magically enhanced.

The _dao_ wielder shot Juukiya a vehement look but didn't argue, instead lunging at Takato with twice the ferocity he had displayed earlier. The _dao_ swung to meet the blade of his _odachi,_ sparks flying briefly before he tilted the tip of his blade downwards, forcing Seiya to fall forward with his momentum. As he did so, he delivered a vicious kick to the unbalanced assassin's midsection, whose mouth was opened in a soundless and surprise cry of pain. It wasn't the most beautiful of tactics, but he didn't (and couldn't) really care. Without missing a beat, he focused the flow within his _jiéshi_ to send a gale of harsh wind, toppling the swordsman overーonly for his adversary to artfully use the wind's force to roll back to his feet, neatly twisting his body to avoid the rest of the blow. As if on cue, several shards of ice came flying at him, and had he not ducked when he did he would have likely lost his eyes, then and there, and maybe a good portion of his face too. Seiya lunged at him again with renewed fury, only for his blade to be met with not the lengthy _odachi_ blade but the flat of a dagger, small and sharp and very slightly curved, the blade gleaming dully. Aoi's eyes glinted with fury, and an ugly scrape oozed blood from his cheek as he gritted his teeth, trying to push back the other with brute strength. There were fresh injuries, suggesting to Takato that he must have run straight through Juukiya's onslaught and the tiger's attacks, heedless of the risks, to back him up.

"'Not friends' my ass," he laughed under his breath. "Look who's talking."

But Aoi's reckless move had, for all the hurt it was worth, created an openingーthe monster had changed track and had been trying to pursue the young mayor, only to be met with a head-on attack from Takato, who swung his _odachi_ straight at the thing's open maw, the weight of the sword hardly noticeable as he carved a perfect arc in the air, meeting the beast's jaws with a rather spectacular shower of...something. Some kind of disgustingly purplish slop, which he assumed was the creature's blood. Yelping, he tried to leap back to avoid the spray, but the momentum with which he had catapulted himself into the attack prevented him from making any speedy moves. Purple blood (he refused to think of it as anything else) splattered over him disgustingly, and he heard the creature give a garbled half-shriek of rage, it's tongue disfigured after he had permanently cut loose its bottom jaw from the rest of its mouth. He had only a second to admire his handiwork (blood splatters over him aside), when he felt the force of a spell careen into him, sending him sideways, and he thought, offhandedly and with almost comical calm, _oh right there was a mage here, wasn't there._ Through the sudden blur of his vision, he saw the monster tumble down, thrashing in pain, its enraged throes and screams the sounds of a dying animal in tremendous pain. Something about the screams made Takato feel not a sense of triumph, but an odd sense of familiarity that he couldn't quite place...like he had heard the sounds before, not so long ago, somewhere. 

"Great," he heard Seiya grumble vehemently, tone surprisingly level considering he was preoccupied with Aoi's flurry of attacks. "There goes another of those things."

Takato tried very hard to right himself up again from Juukiya's blast with as much grace and dignity as he could muster. "'Another'?" 

"One of your friends," The warrior threw Aoi back with the flat of his blade, waving a hand casually as the other tried to keep himself from falling. "Took one of those things out, presumably. But considering the fact that these are nothing but 'half constructs'ー"

"Seiya." Juukiya's voice was cold, infinitely more frigid than it had been up to this point, and even if he wasn't on the receiving end of that tone, Takato still felt a shiver run up his spine. 

"What?" Seiya didn't look too perturbed by the mage's tone, although there was less bravado in his voice than there had been up to this point. Aoi had ceased in his attacks; Takato saw, with a jolt of guilt, that there was a deep gash on his shoulder and blood trickling from his mouth. He wanted to punch himself for not noticing soonerーhe could have tried harder to cover for the wounded man (and their situation had turned out in the reverse, with Aoi covering Takato in the end)ーbut then decided causing himself further injury would probably be, in Kanon's words and in her most exasperated tone, "extremely detrimental for the sake of their goal".

The Xifang warrior was still talking to the mage: "It's not such a big deal if they know that these things are 'half constructs', is there? Considering they're having quite a bit of trouble with just this one, and have only managed to get rid of one so farー"

"Two," Juukiya's eyes narrowed. "It seems they've managed, just a while ago, to get rid of their second. Although," He paused to stare with emotionless eyes at the yowling and wounded creature, poison-like blood still pouring from its dismembered jaw. "I suppose this makes three."

"Really?" Seiya's eyes widened slightly, and he let out an impressed whistle. "Well, good for them I suppose. But that doesn't mean much considering we brought quite a few with us, and if it took them _this_ long to actually finish two of the things then wait 'till they have to face the _real_ dealー"

"Excuse me," Aoi spat a glob of blood from his mouth, not seeming to mind the look of disgust Seiya shot him. Chest heaving, he continued, blade leveled once more at Seiya's chest, "I don't really understand what gibberish you two are spouting, but I would like to continue driving you outーso kindly cease your banter and _get the hell out of my kingdom._ " 

_Nice,_ Takato thought, an admittedly childish reaction. But he didn't try to hide his confident smirk at the fury in Aoi's words, instead tightening his grip on his sword to focus on the mage, who was watching the two of them with a detached and disinterested air.

Actually...he wasn't watching them at all. Words of flame, glowing bright and spitting sparks, had materialized before the mage in midairーa fire message, Takato realized, something completely out of place in the midst of a battle. Seiya had noticed, too, head tilted at a confused angle as he sent an inquiring look at the magic user. Aoi looked poised to leap forward and tear at the warrior's throat, but he too seemed just as perplexed by the message's sudden appearance as anyone else. The only one who seemed unaffected was the tiger-like monster, which was still thrashing, albeit with weaker movements, on the ground as the mangled remains of its jaw twitched feebly, the inside of its throat too dark to see but exposed to the elements, cutting into it harshly. Its cries had softened somewhat to wheezes, a sound almost _human_ in its pain that Takato had a mind to feel some amount of sympathy and guilt, before the thing's eyes, pinpoints of harsh white light glowing in its skull, swiveled to meet his; they were eyes full of hatred and anger, and he was struck by how terrifyingly emotional they seemed to be, in the throes of its death, which no one but he seemed to be acknowledging. Not even the thing's masters seemed to mind much that their pet abomination was on death's doorstep. 

A whole minute must have passed before Juukiya moved againーbut it wasn't to renew his onslaught of attacks; in fact, he was sheathing his _chokuto_ blade, not seeming to mind the tenseness in his opponent's stances, who were ready to jump and continue their fight. Beckoning to a confused Seiya, he said, very simply, "We're leaving," in the same tone as one saying they were going to go check on their strawberry fields.

"Um...we are?" Seiya blinked. 

"Yes."

"Why?"

Juukiya's eyes took on a slightly triumphant look, faint as it was. "Because they've got what they came for, it seems." He barely shot Aoi or Takato a glance, but he did tilt his head slightly at their feebly twitching monster, eyes glowing with a look of...was that scorn? He couldn't tell, but it reminded Takato of the expression of someone staring at something inanimate that didn't serve its purpose properly, like a piece of mining equipment that wasn't functioning well enough for proper use. Like a guiding lantern that was broken, or a cart with a broken wheel, or a bucket with a broken bottom. Something useless, but nothing that couldn't be fixed. And if not fixed, then discarded. 

"We're done here," Juukiya intoned calmly, "Disappear." 

Takato had a moment to blinkーwho, _us?_ ーbefore he heard Aoi yelp with shock as the tiger's barely moving body burst up into purple flame, twisting oddly like an angry spirit as it rose into the air, leaving behind a distinct smell of rot and char. Covering his nose and mouth, he widened his eyes in shock as the monster's body, huge as it was and so very hard to miss, began to shrink and twist into itself, like crumpling paper thrown into fire, the few features the creature had had becoming even less noticeable, folding into themselves until the beast's body was nothing but a crumpled wad of purplish black, faintly blurring at the edges past the haze of flame, the miasma-like substance becoming more and more dull as the remains of the once-large monster vanished to leave behind something decidedly smaller, and obviously inanimate. Something that looked suspiciously like...

Seiya leapt out, eliciting a faint cry of surprise from Aoi who was shoved unceremoniously out of the way, and grabbed the remains of the tiger with his free hand, blade still held up and ready for battle in the other. Takato whirled around to bring his _odachi_ down on the man's back, which was open for the split second it had taken him to grab the tiny remains of the monster that had become...whatever it had becomeーbut then he had to cut off his attack and swing the blade in a different direction; Juukiya had fired another spell on him, and there was a noise like shattering glass as shards of ice were cleaved in two, striking the ground below him and scattering into different directions. One particularly large shard flew past his leg, nicking exposed flesh and resulting in a small spray of blood. He hissed in pain, both at the sharpness of the shard and the ice's frigid cold, taking his focus away from his adversaries and not noticing in time the brilliant flash of the mage's _jiéshi,_ surrounding the two in a light similar to the one from the first attack, back in the palace.

"No, waiー!" Takato saw Aoi throw his dagger towards the steadily receding light in a last desperate attempt, only for the weapon to fly through thin air to strike cold stones, clattering to the ground with a rather loud noise in the sudden silence that accompanied their adversaries' abrupt departure. The young mayor let out a curse through clenched teeth, his voice echoing in the quiet, and Takato slid to his knees in exhaustion and pain.

"What the hell," he gasped, his mind reeling with confusion and dismay, "Was that about?"

"Which part?" Aoi had gone over to recover his dagger, giving the space the two had been a vehement kick of frustration. "Their sudden retreat after words of flame suddenly appeared in the air magically? Their talk about 'half constructs'? Or the dying monster suddenly becoming a lump of weirdly glowing rock?"

"...." Takato bit his lip. "That was definitely a rock, then?" he asked. "It looked like a rock to you?"

Aoi glanced at him, brow scrunched in annoyed confusion. "Well, it looked like a solid lump of something, to my eyes. And it was glowing oddly, too, like those God's stones that you lot carry around and shoot magic from. But not as beautiful."

"Yeah," Takato let out a long breath. "Yeah, I thought so, too. But I couldn't get a good enough look...damn it, now I know how frustrated Kanon feels when she gets so close to an answer and then loses it." The only response he received to that was a small snort of vague amusement.

"Well," Aoi sighed, "They've gone, for now. I suppose this means we've failed in our attempted mission, but at least the town is no longer burningー"

"Takato!"

They both whirled around collectively, eyes wide, to see Kanon stumbling towards them, cut and bleeding and looking decidedly very furious and panicked. It was an odd mix on the girl's face, and it made Takato uneasy.

"Kanon?" He blinked. "What are you _doing_ here? Where's Kanade? And Seiichiro and Gen? Are you _bleeding?_ "

"Nevermind that, Takato!" she shouted, shaking his armsーwith less force, he thought with a twist in his stomach, than she normally could. "Are you alright?! Are you both hurt?" 

Takato felt his unease grow at her toneーKanon _never_ showed such discomposure in the face of almost any situation. She usually tried to keep a brave face, even when things became unbearably tough, and he had found himself relying on her more than he ever would have thought possible of someone from a totally different kingdom with such a glaringly different background. 

"Naruse," Aoi's words always wound up sounding curt, but his tone was one of concernーand of slight apprehension as well. "What's wrong? What happened?"

"Kanon," Takato added gently, "You're hurt. Are _you_ alright?"

The young mage shook her head. "I'm fine," she said, sounding out of breath and shaky, a tone completely at odds with her claim. "But Haru got poisoned, and Riichi managed to treat it somewhat, and we were being attacked but they all suddenly retreated and we didn't know why at first, but we need to get to the palace, and...and..."

"Kanon, calm downー"

"Their leader, Takato," Kanon's grip suddenly slackened, and Takato hurriedly moved to prop her up as she swayed unsteadily on her feet. "Their leader, he was _here,_ Takato, and we didn't notice, and now he, he left, but," 

"But what?" Aoi had moved closer to peer into the young girl's face, a trickle of blood still running from his mouth, which he wiped off as he asked, "But what, Naruse? What's wrong?"

"He took that red haired kid, the one with those other two, the one from your town, Aoi," Kanon shook her head, tone lost and confused. "I don't know why but he took the kid, and so many of us have been hurt, and your brother was with him but he got injured really badly, andー"

"Ryu?" Takato felt his blood turn to ice. "What happened to him? Is he okay?"

She gave him a gentle squeeze on the arms, the first signs of sureness she's shown in the past few minutes. "He's fine, Takato; hurt like us but fine. But..." She hesitated a bit, biting her lip.

"'But'...?"

"Well, some...'interesting' people, helped him," Glancing at them with a look of apprehension, she sighed, the words slipping through her lips as she uttered them in a tone that suggested disbelief at her own words. "And these people, well...they claim to be from Xifang."

* * *

_...okay....got...ou_

His head hurts; his vision is red and unfocused, and he can barely see in front of him, much less keep his eyes open. 

_....sorry...my fault...sorry....sorry....ry_

There's a bitter taste in his mouth, of bile and blood, and he wants to spit it out but he can't even wretch, or open his mouth.

_.....e....please....._

There's ringing in his ears, and behind it, a faint and weakened voice, but his mind is scattered and he can't remember who it is. Or what he's doing for the matter.

_Ryu._

Someone is calling his name, but he can't even twitch a single finger, and...and...

They're leaving, and he's going with them; he can tell, can faintly hear and vaguely see but his body refuses to obey him, his mind caught in a clash between pained confusion and screaming urgency, but he needs to move, he needs to get up, he needs to _go after them now, wake up, it'll be too late, you need to go after them, wake up wake up wake up wake up wake upー_

"...y."

_Wake up._

"Hello?"

_Move._

"Um. Hello? Are you alive?"

"Of course he's alive, genius, he's still breathing. He probably just has a concussion."

_Get **up** already._

"Oh, ' _just_ has a concussion', what a relief, thanks Ayumu I feel so much better."

"Nobutora, _shut up_ and help me heal him."

Slowly light returns to Ryu's world, his vision clearing up from within the red haze, the strange, underwater-like sounds vanishing from his ears, bringing all other noise back into his head with sharp clarity. His mind begins to clamber its way out of the fog, and he feels himself relax, suddenly relieved of a pain he hadn't even been half aware of in his half-conscious state. The nerves in his body come alive again, and he finds he can move his fingers, his arms, which he uses to prop himself up gingerly, heedless of the two unfamiliar faces hovering worriedly above him, one holding a glowing _jiéshi_ above him, casting a soft golden glow that reminded Ryu of the glow of the lamps back in Beifang, which lit the town at night like small guides for lost spirits. Everything up until now plays back in his head with a harsh rush, nearly making him fall over again, until he realizes what that entails and, instead, nearly stands up, only to stumble on his feet.

"Woah," One of the twoーa young brunette who looked to be barely in his twenties with deep mahogany eyesーgave him a startled look. "Don't stand up too suddenly, kid; Ayumu says you might have a concussion." Next to him the man with the stone shook his head slightly, carefully diminishing its glow as he gave his companion a stern look. He had dyed blonde hair cut short, close to white, with glasses of a rather intricate and sleek make. His lips were pursed in the manner of a disapproving parent as he gazed at the brunette. On both of their backs, Ryu noticed with a jolt, were spears, each of different design: the blonde had with him a _podao,_ while the brunette was carrying a _naginata,_ both of considerable good make. Their outfits and the armor they wore were unfamiliar, although Ryu had the strange feeling that he had seen something of a similar make not long ago.

"Don't give my name away so casually," sighed the one called Ayumu (if he had heard that correctly; his ears, despite being ring-free, were still trying to catch up with the sudden revival of their functions). "Or at least make proper introductions first."

"Oh! Right, whoops," laughed the brunette, scratching his head bashfully. "Totally forgot; sorry, I haven't talked to strangers properly for...almost a year now." The young man shot him an oddly bright smile, his face crinkling up into a youthful expression of friendliness, so out of place and yet so reassuring that Ryu felt his suspicions and confusion waver for a brief moment. "My name's Nobutora, and this is my...guardian? Closest friend? Companion that schools me and clucks over me like a mother hen? Anyway, his name is Ayumu, like I said earlier." The blonde rolled his eyes, but there was no mirth in his expressionーonly the gentle light of someone watching a beloved child. Noticing Ryu's gaze, the man called Ayumu gave a small, forced cough, before peering into the former's eyes with renewed and oddly professional concern. 

"Can you stand?" Ayumu's gaze continued to travel across his face, tone no-nonsense. "You may have a slight concussion; it looks like the worst of your wounds have already been healed, so I simply sped up the process, andー"

"Already healed?" Ryu winced at the throb in his head, fighting back the churning of his stomach. "By who?"

The pair looked at each other and shrugged, in perfect sync. "That's what we wanna know," Nobutora scrunched his face in confusion. "'Cos when we got here, you were unconscious and wounded, but there were traces of residue from someone using _jiéshi,_ so we figured..." He held his arms up helplessly.

"We came upon you only a few minutes ago," Ayumu told him, in a considerably calmer voice. "And we found you lying on the ground. But," Suddenly his mouth twisted into a bitter scowl. "I have a few guesses as to who left you like this...although whether or not they healed you is a different story."

"I already know." Ryu felt rage bubble in his stomach at the memoryー _those_ two, from Xifang; the one with the pinkish blonde hair, and the one with his own hair pushed back. They had knocked him out, he knew, and...he felt his stomach drop and his eyes quickly flew down to his legsーhe had a memory of a deep cut, and flying blood, and an immense pain that had torn him from the inside out, along with the mind-numbing fear and certainty that one of his legs had surely come clean off his body. But when he glanced down, both of his legs were intact, and, aside from a large tear in the fabric of his pant leg, stained a rusted brown, there was no injury left behind, and no sensation of painーonly the phantoms of it.

"Actually, you might not," Ayumu said calmly, "I'm not sure how badly you were hurt, but considering the state of your outfit and the ungodly amount of blood that was spilled here, I can hazard a few guesses as to who it was."

"I wouldn't know _who,_ " he snarled, frustrated, "But they called each other 'Noire' and 'Pierre', and the next time I find themー"

"Spare us the details," Ayumu held up a hand. "I can only imagine...but if it was those two who attacked you, then it begs the question: who _healed_ you?"

"It wasn't those two?" He blinked. "One of them was a mage."

"Yeah, but...no offense to Noire, but he's not so skilled a mage he can pull off a really good healing spell, _especially_ because he's so glamour-focused. He likes distortion spells and the like and...I'm saying too much, aren't I?" He cut off at Ayumu's withering glare, visibly drooping, like a scolded puppy. 

"How do youー" _Know so much,_ he was about to ask, before Ayumu cut him off again, voice slightly impatient. 

"We'll explain to you in a minute, butー"

"Hold on," Ryu bolted upward, making Nobutora leap backwards with a yelp of surprise. "Where's Koki?"

Nobutora gave him a look of incomprehension. "Um. Who?"

Ryu ignored him, head swiveling about wildly as he searched in vain for the now-familiar red head of hair, panic threatening to close his throat. It felt like he knew the answer to his own question, yet his mind refused to broach it, refused to admit that he had been powerless while his friend had...had been...

"Calm down," Ayumu was at his side, propping him up as he stumbled. Beside him, Nobutora was hurriedly doing the same. "I don't know who that is, but I'm assuming they are your friend and they should be with you?" 

He nodded frantically, "He was with me when we were attacked, but I..." _Got knocked out. And left him to fend for himself._ A spike of ice seemed to thrust itself into his heart, and he bit his lip, unable to finish that sentence. 

Nobutora was giving him an odd look, one of unease. He shot the same look at Ayumu, who glanced back at his companion questioningly. "I'm just shooting in the dark here, but...does this, er, friend of yours have dark red hair?"

Ryu's head shot up. "You saw him?!" 

Ayumu frowned. "When was this?"

"When we were trying to avoid ShinーI mean, those men from Xifang, we saw them come from this direction; Noire was injured and Pierre was supporting him, and Daiーer, two others came with them...oh, screw itーDaina came with them, and their leader was there, too." Giving his friend an apologetic look before fixing his gaze resolutely on Ryu, he added, "Sorry, Ayumu, but I have to tell him; we're well acquainted with Xifang, I guessーwe came from there. But we're not," he said hastily as Ryu instinctively flinched away from them, holding up his arms in an appeal of harmlessness. "We're not _with_ them. We're trying to stop them." Next to him, Ayumu looked like he wanted to vanish on the spot.

"We can discuss that later," Ryu shot the brunette a suspicious glare. "But right now, tell me where you saw Koki."

"Oh, yeah, sorry," Nobutora looked away sheepishly. "Um, I don't _know_ if this was your friend, for sure, but there was a red-haired kid I'd never seen before with them; they didn't go very far before they started to use a spell, and then vanished. I'm guessing they probably teleported, but if that was your friend, I don't know _why_ he went with them. Or...well, why he needed to go with them in the first place."

"Well, leaving that mystery aside, I suppose it would be more prudent that we tell youーwait, where are you going?"

Ryu had shoved the two of them aside, walking forward on unsteady feet and desperately ignoring the throbbing in his head, which berated him with each step he took. "I have to go after them," A cough rose in his chest, and he had to double over, trying to fight the pain throbbing in his chest as a result. "It's my faultーI let my guard down, and between the two of us _I'm_ the only one with combat experience...I never should've let him come back with me to the capital in the first place; I should've made him _wait._ I let him come when it was unsafe and then I couldn't _protect_ him when I needed to and... _shit!_ " Falling forward, he propped himself up on his knees and arms, ignoring Ayumu and Nobutora, who had come rushing up to him to help.

"Look, I...I'm sorry about your friend, I really am," Nobutora stammered, eyes swimming withーto Ryu's surpriseーtears. "I know you want to go after him as soon as possible, but you _can't;_ we don't know where or how far those guys teleportedーthey might be back in the capital of Xifang for all we know and we can'tーyou can'tーmake it that far, not now. And I...I know your friends are here, too, in the capital; I saw them, they were all fighting those guys, and they probably need help too, so...so you just _can't_ go now. You've been healed, but you still need to recover, so _please_ calm down before you pull a muscle or open a wound and spray blood all over me and faint again." His words had devolved to childish panicking, but the urgency behind them calmed Ryu down, somewhatーalthough they did little to assuage his guilt or fury. 

Ayumu inhaled sharply. "Nobutora," he hissed, "Someone is coming, soon." Ryu noticed the man's _jiéshi,_ while considerably diminished in the strength of its glow, was still not completely dark and cold, indicating he must have been keeping watch of their surroundings through the stone's use. 

"Xifang?"

"Doubtful. Probably one of this kid's allies. We should talk with all of them first, then decide what to do, and..." He looked at Ryu with a small hint of sympathy. "And how to rescue your friend, if he really was taken by Xifang." Ryu felt his fists clench in frustration, but nodded anyway.

"Why would Xifang _want_ some random kid from Nan Fang anyway? Assuming he is from Nan Fang, of course, and not some other kingdom...but regardless, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me." Nobutora tilted his head as he wiped the small tears from his eyes. Shooting Ryu a curious glance, he asked, "Was this friend of yours a really talented mage, or something? Or a member of the royal family?"

Ryu shook his head. "No. No he wasn't any of those things: he was just a kid who grew up in a normal town in Nan Fang with his two best friends, likes dancing and is kinda scatterbrained at times, and sometimes acts like a kid half his age and then other times says things infinitely wiser than you would expect. There's nothing about him that would justify Xifang trying to...do whatever it is they're doing to him. Not one. It's..." _Completely wrong,_ he wants to say, but his traitorous mind replays memories of Koki admitting to his amnesia; to Kaiji talking about his and Riku's fears and need to protect their redheaded friend; to Kanon's grim talks about "forsaken children", either a myth conjured from superstition or a true story with a dark core. 

But there would be no way for Xifang to _know;_ there shouldn't be, and they hadn't displayed any interest in him the last time...

Except, he thinks, a memory tugging at his head, Koki _had_ shown off, unintentionally, his ability to see past that distortion spellーbut would that really hint at them about anything? There could have been a variety of reasons behind it, if the rest of the Xifang assassins had believed the story in the first place.

"Sometimes Xifang gets things like these wrong, y'know," Nobutora said conversationally, breaking into Ryu's thoughts. "Like they _think_ they have who they need, and they don't, and it's all very embarrassing, but knowing Shinーgah, I can't remember his new name...anyway, knowing their current leader, even if your friend isn't who he needs, he probably won't do anything horrible to him. He'sーhe wasーI thought he was a good guy." 

"Nobutora, you're rambling again," sighed Ayumu, "And yes; I highly doubt your friend is of interest to themーabout the only thing I can think of is the possibility of the child being one of those with _niliu,_ but we all know that one of those hasn't been found for a long while; the one patient Dongfang claimed they had in custody wasn't even properly diagnosed with it and only had an inherent magic aversionーlike allergies, but not too severe. She couldn't use magicーthey didn't care, though; they thought they had found someone with _niliu,_ and were so eager to make a fuss of locking her up and leaving her to rot. I'll never understand them."

Ryu felt something horribly sharp scrape the inside of his chest at the storyーhe had heard it, too, not long ago, and he asked, hesitant to know the answer, "What is _'niliu'_?"

"Oh, right, that term isn't that...well-known, is it?" Nobutora gave a thoughtful hum, seemingly ignorant of the steadily paling of Ryu's face, which was beginning to feel like it had frozen over with stone. "Well, I wouldn't worry too much; I doubt it applies to your friend...but I guess, in most places, the more common term would be 'forsaken child', huh? That's what those guys back in Xifang need, right Ayumu? They need a 'forsaken child'. They need the _niliu._ "

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I said this on my Twitter but THIS CHAPTER was a huge bitch to write. Primarily because I actually went backwards writing this, so excuse any grammatical/spelling errors and any small discrepancies. I'll see what I can fix later (this is un-beta'd in other words) but for now I'm going to put out the result.
> 
> FINALLY this arc is over (ish). There's still gonna be action in Nan Fang, but starting in the next arc (yes I'm trying to separate them), there will be a more permanent scenery change, and some chances to go in-depth about new/mentioned parts of the continent, so stay tuned! And if you're still reading this, thank you very much. 
> 
> Updates may be slower (as they were with this chapter), because of a) courses, and b) my desire to write more short fics/one-shots. In other words, small side projects. I've discovered that, if you can't focus on writing for a big, long fic, try refreshing your brain by giving yourself some time away from the project and work on something smaller! (I say this as if I'm somehow a genius for figuring it out, but it's mostly advice from writers with Tumblr accounts. I don't even have Tumblr...)


	25. Chapter 25

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The beginning of (JESUS FINA-FREAKING-LLY) the second arc, which, in contrast to the first, I shall extremely creatively dub the Opal Arc. The first one was the Crimson Arc. Which leaves you to assume whatever name for the next arc I will come up with...but don't be fooled! The story is actually nearing it's climax (the half-mark). The first arc dragged for as long as it did because introducing an AU and scenery is more of a pain the butt than I would ever have imagined. But it was fun, too, for what it was worth. I hope you guys enjoyed the semi-exploration of Nan Fang, because now we will be delving into the western kingdom of Xifang!

_If you tell me.... I'll try and get you out of there. And I’ll take you anywhere you want to go. I promise._

_'......How would you?'_

_Huh?_

_'That's really nice of you and all, but how_ would _you, in the first place? No one can just come and leave here, normally. It's impossibleーI would've tried to leave from the beginning if I could.'_

_Yeah, but..._

_'?'_

_I mean, I managed to get_ this _far, right? And if it's true, then I'm not even supposed to have, y'know,_ reached _you._

_'.....I....'_

_So it'll be fine; I'll get you out, and then I can show you around anywhere you want to go, anytime. Oh, but not_ everywhere, _alright? I can't exactly go to the Untouched North or take you across the seaーthat would be kinda impossible for a kid like me._

_'Untouched North...?'_

_Yeah, there's tons of other places besides the four kingdoms I mentioned. It's...probably hard to imagine with me just describing it, but compared to the rest of the world, these woods are tiny and just a speck on any old map. The Untouched North is even further up north than Beifang, and there's a different name for each of the parts of the ocean that surround the continent depending on which kingdom's territory it's closest to. And there's even more: volcanoes that sometimes growl like an angry dragon; canyons that reach down into unknown depths; even a whole continent of ice south of the east continent full of creatures that no one's ever_ seen _before!_

_'.......'_

_Once you leave this place, you can go explore any of those places any time you wantーand I'll come along with you if it's too much for you to handle on your own! My brother, too; he's really smart and knows loads of things about exploring and adventure, and he's got a super big imagination too. We always like to pretend at sword-fighting; if I ever manage to convince him, I'll try and bring him along next time! He's always looking for something new and exciting, and I'm sure you guys would be great friends._

_'...........'_

_So...tell me your name? I don't know if it's supposed to be taboo or something, but I'm already breaking a metric ton of rules just_ being _here, much less talking to you, and I want to get to know you more. It feels...wrong that you're stuck here._

_'...........'_

_I_ _want to help you._

_'.............'_

_I want to be your friend._

_'.....I..'_

_Yeah?_

_'I...I can't tell you. I'm not supposed to...'_

_..........._

_'I'm sorry.'_

* * *

_Palace of Xifang, two hours after the attack on the capital of Nan Fang_

"Why the hell did you heal that kid's friend?"

Pierre's voice is as irritatingly loud as it always is, but right now, it was ten times worse than normal. Daina tried to ignore the dissatisfaction roiling off of his cohort, instead focusing on, as quietly as possible, stripping himself of his armor, which was damaged in a few spots and all around scuffed. Which was unfortunate, he thought with a scrunch of his nose, because that meant taking it in for repairs or replacing it, and if Seiya or Chabo or Baihu-forbid Juukiya saw that, he would never hear the end of it. Damaged armor was one thing, but the amount of damage he had taken in only one scuffle would surely result in some mockery of his performance. As much as he hated to admit it, he had been looking down on Nan Fang, taking them more for artists and innovators than warriors. 

Not that he didn't have appreciation for the arts, despite the branding he received for his roots. Xifang had its fair share of art-appreciation enthusiasts. He had only assumed that a kingdom so focused on...visual appeal and new inventions would be hard-pressed for strong, battle-ready warriors, enough to match the might of Xifang or Dongfang, the countries of battle and power, focused on strength and pride over aesthetic appreciation. A part of him felt some pleasure knowing one could be from a kingdom known for its love of the arts _and_ still have the skills of a warrior on par with war-driven empires, but at the same time, he thought with a wince, that had greatly interfered with their progress, much more than he would have liked. Smoking out the motley crew hiding in the palace of Nan Fang had been an easy feat, although they had (at some point) increased in numbers. They had intended to let loose more of their "creations"ーhe still feels a visceral sense of disgust at the thought of themーupon the city: the creatures' reliance on the _jiéshi_ had meant that, in a town that wasn't running on the resources, they had had difficulty maintaining top form, much less put up as grand a fight as they had in the palace. When Noire had curiously, before the attack, asked why that was so, Michelle had calmly surmised that there was likely a greater _jiéshi_ source hidden in the palace somewhere, which their vicious "pets" had taken advantage of. But not this time, Daina thought with a twist of his mouth; they hadn't accounted for the abysmal _lack_ of _jiéshi_ in the capital. It had thrown their plans off-kilter, but not so terribly that they had been forced to rethink completely. The fire, to Seiya and Chabo's unhinged delight, had been an "extra" twist, suggested by one of their more... _sadistic_ strategists, back from the capital; Julian, he thought bitterly, would never have suggested such a thing.

This new bastard was a bit too cruel for Daina's liking, but he had Dory's ear and trust, so they had no choice but to listen and do as they were told. 

That didn't mean he had to like it.

"'Why'?" Dory gave the other man a long stare, before sighing, letting loose the tension in his shoulders. "Because I'm not a monster, Pierre; the other boy would've died if we'd left him as he was. He's not one of our targets, and if our information is correct, he's not even from Nan Fang. And he was still only a child, much like..." Shooting a glance at the infirmary door, their leader heaved another sigh. "Besides, the child is already confused enough as it is, and I didn't want to make matters worse by making the last thing he saw before he passed out the slowly weakening body of his friend. Would you?" Pierre hesitated for a moment, and the blonde took the opportunity to turn away, shrugging his mantle off. 

"When you put it like that..." The wild-haired man gave a small grumble, but Daina knew he wasn't as opposed to the other boy's healing as he pretended to be, even if the opponent was an enemy. There was a moment of awkward silence, settling upon them like a heavy shroud, and he saw Pierre's eyes flit briefly to the infirmary doorsーNoire was sleeping in one of the beds, Michelle watching over quietly. There hadn't really been a need to, but the other high-ranking noble had displayed a level of concern for their youthful cohort that sometimes betrayed how gentle (Guerrero said soft, but Daina knew he really meant kind) his heart really was, all appearances aside. Guerrero was rubbing a bruise on his left, subtly, and Daina wondered how he would get his companion to swallow his pride and just go get it checked. 

(It would take a while, he reckoned. All the noblesーthe titles they had taken upon themselves despite not all of them having an ounce of noble bloodーhad exceedingly prideful and showy tendencies, himself included. If Noire had been awake, he would've surely denied the need for a caretaker to watch over him.)

Seiya, likely sensing that the awkwardness wouldn't leave anytime soon unless someone spoke up, gave a small cough and said, in an inquiring and incredulous tone, "Why did we need to bring that kid with us again? I know that scheming bastaー" "Seiya." "Sorry, our _glorious new strategist and benefactor_ said we would need one of the _niliu,_ but that kid? Really? Are you sure we didn't get the wrong information and nab the wrong kid?" 

"It's him," Dory didn't turn around to meet Seiya's eyes as he said this, but there was an undercurrent of strength in his tone that brooked no room for argument, cowing everyone in the hall. "It's not just the information we received and Pierre and Noire's reports; I _know_ it's that child. He has the _niliu,_ no doubt."

"If you say so..." was the mumbled response, prompting Daina to nudge him gently, shaking his head. This wasn't, they both knew, the best time to probe, not with the concern and annoyance radiating off of Pierre as he waited for Noire to awaken, or of the air of grave severeness their leader was radiating. Even Juukiya, as calm and detached and annoyingly perfect as he tended to be, was giving them looks of subtle warning. There was a tug at his arm, and turning around revealed a grim-looking Chabo, shaking his head silently. Behind him Seiya stood staring at the ground with a disgruntled air, and, as if by urge to be close to his longtime companions, Guerrero had subtly walked over so he was standing near them as well. 

_We should go,_ Chabo mouthed at him wordlessly, and as much as Daina was concerned for the rest of them, he knew that nothing would be gleaned from lingering in front of the infirmary door, stewing in awkward silence any longer. Aloud, he said, directed more towards Juukiya than anyone else, "We'll be taking our leave here, then. We're all exhausted and I don't think any status reports will be necessary, for the time being."

"Do as you like," Juukiya responded in the same level tone, although there was a hint of weariness about it. "If you happen to see Julian on your way, tell him we'll be arranging to come meet with him soon."

"Can do."

They walked the halls of the palace in silence after that, Seiya wincing every few steps and Guerrero letting out barely imperceptible hisses as an aside. The only sounds that echoed throughout the brightly lit halls, outlined in the gloom of the night, were their breaths and mutterings and the occasional curse, mostly at the courtesy of Seiya, whose mood seemed to have fouled even worse after they had left the infirmary behind. Daina wondered at the quiet of the palace, before chastising himself at the reminder that they were really some of the scarce few full-time occupants of the buildingーthe barracks _were,_ by all intents and purposes, the capital itself, with the occasional rogue fighter here and there. It was almost the polar opposite of the relatively peaceful capital in Nan Fangーby day that was. At night, markets set up lamps and shop, and families that lived in the residential portion of the capital came pouring out of the comfort of their homes, ready to spend the hours under the moon examining wares, or dancing to the faint music of makeshift bands, playing in time, perhaps, to the reciting of a bard. Daina and his companions had always enjoyed those hours best, as childrenーthere their presences were hidden under the glamour of the night, and there they could, even as weak and small children growing awkwardly into young men, enjoy themselves fully. About the only one who probably hadn't enjoyed the luxury of a night market, he figured, was the only one in all the kingdom with a drop of royal blood left in them: he didn't think _that_ person had ever once been permitted to enjoy such fun. Even their former leader, and their current one, had spoken of fond memories in the night market, under a blanket of stars and the moon smiling upon them. 

"Hey," At first he didn't notice the words, until he saw Seiya had stopped walking, still glaring at the floor as if he had a personal agenda against it. "So are we _ever_ gonna question what exactly it is we're doing here? Why we're risking ourselves over and over to pick a fight with _Crimson,_ of all the places? Why we abducted a regular kid and apparently have to make sure he's okay and not dead?"

"I thought you weren't the type to care so much about the technicalities," was the sardonic reply from Guerrero, who remained facing forwards, words but not face directed towards the other. "You were always mocking Noire for wanting to know so much."

"I was, but this is different," Seiya spat. "I thought I knew why we were trying to fight against Nan Fang, why they were our enemies. But we go there, come back, go again, and for what? The first time, okay, we killed the king. Got some intel that pleased Dory and that snake, but then what? We get sent back, and sure I like a good fight as much as any Xifang warrior worth their salt, but we come back with a _kid,_ and on top of that we lost a few of those stupid 'half constructs' while we were at it. I thought those things were _supposed_ to be 'valuable', if we can believe anything that creepy new guy keeps saying. Honestly, I don't trust him one bit, and I don't like how this last mission turned out, either."

Daina heaved a sigh in response. "What can we do, though? Dory has made it clear he can't tell us everything; Juukiya either doesn't know or chooses not to; I'm pretty sure even Michelle doesn't have the whole story. Neither does Julian, and certainly not Pierre or Noire. It's only gonna be our leader, and that...guy, who somehow we're supposed to trust even as he eyes us as if we're...inferior to him, somehow. And do you think a guy like _that_ will ever tell us anything?"

Chabo snorted. "When you put it like thatーyeah, things seem pretty hopeless for us. We're probably not gonna get the answers we want until the plan reaches, I dunno, its final stages, maybe. And even then, we don't know if we'll be trusted with that, or, for the matter, if it'll even be safe."

Seiya heaved a massive sigh, voice uncharacteristically small and uncertain. "Yeah, I get what you're all saying...but it doesn't make me satisfied with it. I mean, if you think about it, there's no guarantee that we'll come out of this safe, is there? Whatever it is. And on top of that, we don't even know if what we're being made to do is even riー"

"Seiya," Guerrero's voice had taken on a harsher note. "I get what you're sayingーbut think more carefully about the time and place to say it." His eyes remained fixed ahead, but instantly Daina was reminded that, here in the palace, they couldn't be sure who was watching them, and from where. Chabo muttered under his breath, "I hate that we have to tread on eggshells, even when we're the ones who _live_ here..." To which Daina couldn't help but teasingly remark, "We can't really say that, considering we took this place for our own a few years ago as well~" Seiya, who had been listening, barked a small laugh. 

"Idiots." Guerrero huffed, but there was a twinkle of amusement in his eyes, and the heavy air around them seemed to lighten a few inches. 

When they turned a corner, they were met with another long hall, although this one ended not into another corridor, but into the main hall, where the king of the palace would hold court. It had served its purpose a little differently over the past few years; instead of courts, the predecessor to Dory had multi-tasked with the abnormally large room, using it to hold lavish partiesーalthough they were of a different stripe than the ones held in Nan Fang. These had been more covert and secretive, expressly held for the sake of information and the creation of allies, as well as affirmation as to who was one. With the system of monarchy and the titles of nobility so shattered as they were, the methods used to run the kingdom had become a little different over the following years, becoming more hectic when the second coup, following the first one, had risen. Even as someone who had helped orchestrate the first coup, Daina sometimes felt a longing to know of the courts of the past; he had heard of them, read about them, but no one, not even the one kid whoーhad he ascended the throne as he was supposed toーwas supposed to know of their workings, knew quite what old court life was like. It may very well have been a myth. 

_Lady Baihu would be so displeased to learn of what has happened to her beautiful court,_ he remembers his first leader once muttering softly. The words had sounded grave, but the tone was of thinly masked glee, as if tearing apart the foundations of one of the Fours' designs, and their founder at that, had given him an injection of power, the illusion that he was more powerful than the gods who had made them. He had sounded so powerful then, so sure of himself, and Daina hadn't doubted following him in the slightest. Now, thinking back on that tone again, he felt a shiver of fearーhad the ecstasy in those words simply been a result of having attained power, or was it proof of the unhinged nature of one's mind? He didn't know, and, judging from their current state of affairs, he likely wouldn't be finding it anytime soon. 

"But still," he said aloud, "I get what you want to say, Seiya. All the mess with the _jiéshi_ aside, I don't get what the deal with the kid is. He said something about _niliu,_ for starters, but..."

"You don't fully know what that is?" When he nodded, Guerrero heaved a sigh. "I don't blame you; the term itself is ridiculously obscure on the continent, save for in the south, and even then not everyone knows it. It's supposed to be a sort of medical-slash-official term used to describe the myth of the so-called 'forsaken children', whose existences are a bit of a story themselves, mostly built on superstition." 

"I've heard of them," Chabo wrinkled his nose. "Although I never fully understood the story: some kids are born with an aversion to _jiéshi_ and that somehow makes them cursed?"

"It's a little different than a mere aversion," Guerrero explained calmly, in the tone of a teacher to a student. "Aversions to _jiéshi_ refer to the inherent inability to access and utilize the flow hidden in the stones, which is used to then direct the course of magic to create phenomenons that normally wouldn't occur, under the rules of the world. Children with said aversion aren't rare, for starters; they're just not noticed, because not every child in the world has access to the _jiéshi_ to begin with. Sometimes those children get mistaken as 'forsaken children', especially in superstitious places such as Dongfangーremember that story Michelle was telling us, with the young prodigy they had over there that suddenly got locked up because she couldn't control the _jiéshi_ properly? That was one of those cases. Poor thing; she's probably dead by now, or insane." He shuddered. "They're a little...extremist over there, I guess you could say."

"So...if it's not an aversion, then what exactly is it?"

"Right, sorry...'forsaken children' were a myth that referred to people with the inherent ability to mess with the flow in the _jiéshi;_ they could _unconsciously_ control the flow coming out from a stone, but never the stone itself, and always in a way that made things completely backwards. Like if someone used an invisibility spell, they would be interfering with the flowーwhether by intention or not, I don't knowーand cutting off the way it manipulated the laws of the world. So the invisibility spell would cease to be an invisibility spell."

"Sounds like a neat ability," Seiya commented, with an impressed whistle.

Guerrero shook his head. "Not completely. See, the danger that 'forsaken children' apparently possessed was that they weren't just interfering with the flow to cut off spells entirely, but they also caused them to go haywire. Take those gadgets in Nan Fang, for example: they work well because each part making it up serves its functions perfectly, right? Like those lamps they were selling in that one town, with the knobs on the sidesーit's able to light a fire using such a simple motion because everything making it up works smoothly. That's the same with any magic spell, but these 'forsaken children'ーor I'll just call it _niliu_ from now onーhave the dangerous ability to throw everything making up the spell off-kilter. And doing so could either cancel the spell or..." Spreading his arms, Guerrero spun around to face them, expression exaggerated into one of mock fear. 

"Make it run amok?" Chabo tilted his head, lip curved up in slight amusement at their companion's dramatic antics. 

Nodding in satisfaction, Guerrero spun around to face forwards again. "You guessed it. Those with _niliu_ are perceived as dangerous because their control of the flow is both completely all over the place and yet relatively powerful, although no one really knows what to do with it. It would be one thing if they could utilize such flawless control for their benefit, but the problem with this 'flawless control' is that it's completely geared at creating flaws in the first place." 

Seiya winced at that. "Maybe not so neat then."

Tilting his head inquisitively, Guerrero murmured, "I don't know why we would possibly need someone with _niliu,_ though...unless they have something to do with this 'key' that we keep hearing about recently."

"Maybe the _niliu is_ the key," snorted Chabo.

"For what, though?" Daina asked, bemusedly. "From what I heard, this is a fairly magic-related situation we are dealing with, and I would think the _last_ thing we needed is someone who would potentially make our magic spells explode in our face."

"Or see past them." Seiya and Chabo shot each other knowing and devilish grins.

"I guess Noire did good then, with his passion for glamour, huh?" Guerrero snorted. "If he hadn't used the glamour and the kid hadn't seen past it in the first place, we may have never caught on that this kid was someone with the _niliu._ "

"Technically, the one who made the conjecture was Juukiya," Daina said, with mock stuffiness. "Our report gave him a 'hint', or so he claims. He doesn't want to flat out admit that we were pretty useful. Again, I might add." They all laughed at that, the sound echoing merrily in the cold halls, bouncing down the long corridor and dissipating into thin air. 

Their moods considerably lightened, the four of them made their way through the overhead arch that was the doorway into the main hallーopposite to the entrance through which they came was another corridor, this one leading into another wing of the palace. The entire palace of Xifang was a maze of foreboding corridors with little decoration, although the subtle shine of the walls and the beauty of the few tapestries added some amount of charm to the place. That, coupled with their previous leader’s penchant for flair, had given the building some measure of appeal, although it still could use plenty of work. If Dainaーreally, if any of themーcould have their way, they would add infinite more layers of decoration to the palace entirelyーabout the only place that suited their personal tastes was the main hall, and even that they couldn't fully appreciate, what with their new plans dragging them across what seemed to be the entirety of the continentーfor the Baihu-knew-what-was-going on research, and the staged attacks and reconnaissance of Nan Fang, among others. It was like being pulled around on a cart of mad horses, although horses traveled more reasonable distances than this.

"Speaking of," Chabo glanced behind them as they walked across the main hall, into the next corridor. Their sleeping quarters were further ahead, on another floor; unfortunately for them, the number of stairwells didn't do the sheer size of the palace justice, and it was quite a trek just to find even one. And due to the overall design of the building, the second floor of the building wasn't all accessible to each and every stairwellーthe one leading to the watchtowers, for example, only led there, and nowhere else. Luckily, it didn't take them too long to understand the workings of the interior, and soon they were able to come and go across the palace with ease, not sparing a single thought to navigation (but plenty to complain about the walk).

"Yeah?" Seiya glanced over his shoulder with a curious look.

"What was that kid's name anyway? I only saw him for, what, two seconds before Dory and the rest of them stuck him in the infirmary, but no one mentioned his name or anything like that."

Guerrero snorted, "I don't even know if _they_ know, themselvesーDory might, but I have my doubts about Michelle; Juukiya, even. Pierre or Noire _might_ know, on the chance they overheard his name being said in one of the two times they confronted him, but those two aren't really the types to pay attention to minute details about others, really. And considering their current situationーNoire's, at least," Here he gave a small wince, guilt kicking in at the casualness of his words. "Then I doubt they would have noticed the kid's nameーor remembered it, if they heard it at all."

"You think _he_ knows?" Daina felt a shiver run up his spine, and attempted to disguise his discomfort with a light tone. 

"I have no clue," snorted Chabo. "He might, considering how much he knows and how much he hides, and then he might not. I get the sense our new friend isn't the type to care so much about the names of others, even if they do hold for him some kind of value. Who knows, really."

"Kid looked like he wasn't even of age yet," Seiya rolled his neck back and forth, yawning. "Probably still somewhat in the green area: old enough that the sentinels might train him, but not old enough to be trusted with a weapon of his own."

"Are you saying that ironically?" Daina gave his cohort a look that was half bemusement, half exasperation. "Because if you are, that is extremely insensitive. Noire and Pierre assumed the same thing as you, and look what happened to one of them."

Seiya winced. "I didn't mean it like that," he said hastily, "I was just trying to explain myself better, that's all."

"He knows that's what you meant," Chabo gave his friend a nudge. "He's just messing with you."

"I'm actually not."

"Don't be like that, Daina; where's your kind guy persona?"

" _What_ 'kind guy persona'?"

"I kinda feel bad," Guerrero admitted, out of the blue. "For the kid."

"I don't," Chabo shrugged. "Dory's not the type to hurt kids anyway; not unnecessarily, that is. Unlike _some_ people we all know." Guerrero shot him a warning look, which the former shrugged off. 

"I mean, yes, I get your point; but still, have a touch of sympathy for the child, why don't you?"

"He _stabbed_ our companion, Guerrero. I don't think I particularly feel much sympathy for a kid who does that. _Twice._ "

"And you mocked him so much for the first time, too..."

"I was honestly shocked," Daina piped up, "That such a childish looking boy pulled that off...then again, Noire is the epitome of childishness, and he manages to pose quite a threat on his own. Don't tell him I said that, though."

"Trust me, we won't."

Seiya was humming thoughtfully, hands behind his head, in a pose of apparent carelessness. Daina wasn't fooledーSeiya pulled this pose every time he wanted to tell them something, contrary to the uncaring and unbothered act he tried to maintain. It wasn't much of an act, not anymoreーthey all knew, and they also knew that pretending not to notice meant that their friend eventually yielded to his love for chatter and gossip, desperate to share and unable to keep up his posing for any longer. Daina thought that, by now, he would've caught on that _they_ all had caught on to his act, but from the looks of it, the sharp-eyed brunette hadn't quite yet caught on.

This time, however, Daina decided to humor him, against his better instincts not to. If it was something he really wanted to share, it likely wouldn't take _too_ much prodding to get the beans spilled. 

"Go on, Seiya, what do you know? Spill it already."

"I don't know what you're talking about~" Seiya shot him a teasing smirk, and Daina felt the corners of his mouth curve up in a smile. He could sense Guerrero and Chabo sharing exasperated looks.

"Come _on,_ Seiya, stop dragging it out already; I know you know something." Daina prodded his friend playfully, and the other laughed as he smacked his arm away, a little more forcefully than normal. When he shot the other a look of consternation, the only response he received was a childish cackle.

"Okay," Seiya gave a small hum as he spoke, "It's more of a guess on my part, but..."

"But?" Daina leaned in; Chabo was, too, unwittingly, while Guerrero rolled his eyes. _You laugh at us,_ Daina thought with amusement, _but you're listening with just as much interest as I am._

"Something tells me our leader _might_ recognize this kid from somewhere. As in, he knew him."

"Huh?"

"I'm not implying they're _acquainted,_ or something like thatーalthough the possibility isn't off the tableーbut it kinda felt less like we apprehended a prisoner when we brought the kid in, and more we were taking a lost child under our wing, with the way Dory brought him in. As if he'd found the kid starving and alone, and needed to make sure he was safe. He put him in the _infirmary,_ for Baihu's sakeーyou don't normally do that with a prisoner, even if they're injured."

"........"

"We basically kidnapped this _niliu_ kid, but it doesn't _feel_ that way, if you get what I'm trying to say. We haven't been treating him like a prisoner, nor have we once thought that he might be dangerous. Hell, I'm pretty sure the only thing keeping Pierre from beating that kid to bits for nearly killing Noire was Dory himself, but not in a 'valuable prisoner that we need for later' kind of way. It felt..." Seiya hesitated. "It felt like he was making sure we didn't hurt an angered stray that he took in, even after it had bit and scratched us all. That kind of feeling."

Guerrero raised an eyebrow. "Impressive conjecture, but was it really only the way we didn't treat our prisoner like a typical prisoner that tipped you off to the admittedly far-fetched idea that our leader was once acquainted with him?"

Seiya shook his head. "No, it wasn't just that. I'm...not completely sure, but I also thought I heard Dory call that kid something, a name maybe, and so I reckoned..."

"He knew him, or maybe mistook him for someone else?" Daina put in helpfully.

Seiya let out a long huff of breath. "Yeah, something along those lines."

Chabo's eyes were glinting with curiosity. "So? Did you hear what he called him?"

"Wellー"

* * *

_....Hey._

_'You....'_

_...What? Is there something on my face?_

_'You came back...?'_

_Uh, yeah. Why? Is that bad?_

_'It's not...! A bad thing...I just didn't think...'_

_?_

_'I thought you were upset because I didn't tell you my name last time, and I thought...I thought you weren't gonna come back.'_

_I mean...yeah, I was kinda bummed that you didn't tell me, but I figured that maybe_ I _was being too pushy. You were forced here, anyway, by people like us._

_'...Not like you. You weren't a part of it, I said.'_

_Yeah, I know, but I still felt bad, so I wound up saying a bunch of things without thinking about how you would feel. It's not your fault if you can't give me your nameーjust as it's not your fault you can't leave this place, either._

_'.........'_

_I wanted to make you feel better, but I wound up making you worry instead. I'm sorry._

_'That's not...'_

_Nope! I apologized, and that's that. It was me who made you worry, and I'm apologizing. No ifs, ands, or buts!_

_'......pft....'_

_Oh, hey, you laughed! Wait, was it because the joke was funny? Or are you laughing at_ me?

_'I don't know...but I felt like I wanted to laugh.'_

_That's a good thing, then: you should laugh when you feel like it. My brother tells me it makes things feel better, and if you're down, you should always try to cheer up a bit, even by a little._

_'Okay...I'll try that, then.'_

_You're oddly serious, aren't you? Not that I mind. I'll teach you all sorts of things, like my brother does to meーhey! Then it will feel kinda like now_ I _have a little brother! Isn't that neat?_

_'Um...I don't really know...I'm not sure about my age, either...'_

_Not like that! I meant, not 'cos of age, I meant 'cos I'll teach you about all sorts of cool things, like adventures and myths and the funky animals you'll find across the continent! My older brother teaches me stuff like this 'cos he's older and knows better, so if I teach you, then that makes me the older brother! Right?_

_'I...I guess...?'_

_That's settled, then! Shake on it?_

_'.........'_

_Oh, right...sorry, you don't know what that means, huh? Well, look, if I take your hand like this and hold it with mine..._

_'?'_

_Then here! We shake hands. Next time I'll show you some of the cooler versions my brother and the other older kids do, but that's all I can remember for now._

_'O...okay...'_

_Alright! Oh, and about my promise? It's still there, but you don't have to worry about telling me your name. Feel free to do it whenever you get comfortable, and in exchange, you wait for me to figure out how to get you out of this weird place! How's that sound?_

_'Um...good? I guess?'_

_I've got to go soon; it's getting late. Next time, I'll bring something good to eat, too; no one brings you anything here, do they?_

_'No...but somehow I never get all that hungry, and I don't know why.'_

_Huh...but still! It's not good for anyone if they don't eat proper meals, so I'll bring you what I can. I'll come back soon, I promise._

_'...Hey, wait!'_

_Yeah?_

_'......What about you?'_

_Huh?_

_'What's your name?'_

_Oh, right, I didn't tell you, even though this is, what, the third time? The fourth? Since we met. And I kept asking for yours, tooーmy bad! I got so caught up in the excitement of meeting you, I totally forgot to give you my own name._

_My name isー_

* * *

Koki was pretty sure he was having a dream, but it felt too real to call a simple nightmare. And yet its vividness told him, with a harsh and painful stab in the chest, that it wasn't reality, not quite.

He was pretty sure he was lying in that cottage again, the abandoned house in Crimson territory in the middle of a forest, quite literally unseen and unnoticed by the world. No one would normally chance upon such a derelict buildingーit had been in such a sorry state that it was a wonder _he_ hadn't woken up crushed under the decaying beams, or choking on the mustiness of the air. He wondered if the version of himself with memories had, as he wound down in the beat-up building to rest, had even the slightest bit of concern for his own safety in such an obviously rotting place. Kaiji and Riku finding it as they had was almost short of a miracle.

Green filtered in through the gaping holes eating at the roof, strange and jagged borders of old splintered wood revealing a natural opening to the sky from the ceiling. The sun was obviously shining bright that day, and the sounds of the forest were ripe with the songs of birds, the call of wild animals, the faint hum of an insect's wings. Every inch of him felt scratched and sore, and yet the languidness of the air and the peaceful noises of the forest beckoned him to relax, to enjoy lying in an abandoned house with his back on the ground and nothing to keep him comfortable save for the clothes on his back. He could only move his eyesーhis body didn't seem to be complying with his requests for movement. Hardly a surprise, he thought with a wince.

Someone was staring down at him from above, and although his memory told him it was either Kaiji's or Riku's, the face in front of him was anything but. It was a boy, with dark brown hair, close to black, slightly wavy, and giving him a very exasperated look, laced with barely concealed fondness. 

"Get up, idiot," laughed Ryu, sticking his hand out and offering it to Koki.

_Who're you calling an idiot?_ he wanted to ask, before suddenly Ryu was replaced with Riku, staring down at him with sad eyesーthe grown version of Riku, who was giving him a hopeless look, like the world was going to end.

"Why did you go off on your own?" Riku gave him a sad, long look. "All alone, too? Why didn't you wait for us?" And then Riku was Kaiji, glowering down at him wordlessly, staring into his eyes with a smoldering gaze that seemed to be both berating him and posing him a question.

"You always do this."

Koki blinked, and then suddenly it was nightーthe faint outline of trees loomed above him, large and foreboding and suddenly infinitely taller than they had just been, the only means of seeing them lighted by the moon and the stars. No longer were the birds chirping or the insects humming; instead, there was a faint chill, and in the depths of the forest he somehow instinctively knew that he had to hide. There was a rustle in the undergrowth, and that was when he realized he was no longer in the derelict house, nor was he lying on his back. He still felt sore and hurt, but it wasn't as unbearable; he felt like he could move, yet he stood in place, craning his neck to stare at the night sky like an idiot, not budging an inch. 

Yet he found that he didn't feel like runningーdidn't see a _need_ to, more accurately. Why should he? They all know he's here, and they all know they can't touch him. _He's_ the only one that can fully navigate here, where everything ran so eerily opposite to the way it was supposed to, and they all knew that he had been put here because the ones on the other side couldn't find a place for such anomalies over there. In a sense, he was one of themーhe knew that could be subject to change, though, if he made a wrong move. Even that terrifying thought did little to move him from his tranceーwhy would he move, he wondered, when he was in the midst of making a wish? Here he could recite songs over and over without scaring off or angering anyone. But his voice, so unused to normal speech, ached after each time, and some part of him wondered if, soon, he would only be able to make noises through song, and not ever hold a normal conversation ever again. The thought wasn't as frightening as it had been the first few weeks...

The first few weeks?

Where? Here? Where was "here"?

_Huh?_

_What is this?_

_Where am I?_

_Why am I seeing this?_

_What is this?_

_What is this?_

_................_

_..............._

_Who am I?_

"Hey."

Whirling around revealed...a child. Someone who should barely have come up to his legs in height, and yet somehow Koki felt himself looking them in the face, a little shorter and smaller, sort of like...like...

The boy, whose short and messy hair was the deep black of the night sky, of the forest surrounding them, gave him a wide and delighted smile.

"What's your name?"

"Ah!"

Sitting up as suddenly as he did resulted in a rather painful crash with the person hovering over him, who also let out a yelp when his skull collided unceremoniously with their jaw. Splitting pain coursed through his head, and he let out a small whimper as bright stars pranced across his vision, making him momentarily see double. The person at his bedside had doubled over, clutching their face, and Koki tried to mumble out an apology, unable to see who they were. He was in an infirmary, from the looks of the room's interior design. There were cots for patients, covered in sheets as white as a swan's wings, and the strong smell of medicinal herbs permeated the room.

But it was different, he thought hazily, than the infirmary in Nan Fangーthe cots were placed a little differently, and the bedside tables were of a slightly different design. The placement of the windows was off too, and the lamps didn't have the handles the ones in Crimson now all tended to have; these were the old fashioned kind, which required someone physically lighting a flame within the lamp to light it up. Koki squinted as he stared at the increasingly unfamiliar scenery spread in front of him.

So...where was he, then?

"Oh, good," A voice, unfamiliar and smoother than honey, suddenly spoke up, nearly making him jump up again. "You're awake."

Through the still-throbbing pain of his head, Koki turned to see a young man standing in the doorway of the infirmary, with another man standing behind him, face impassive, as if he were a sculpture carved from ice. The man who had just spoken was solidly built, with kind eyes and a gentle expression that was, he noticed, difficult to read. It had layers in it, he could tell, but _what_ those layers were hiding was a complete mystery. All he knew was they were there. His hair was a striking blonde, close to gold. His clothing was all a deep midnight black, and the memory of his dream suddenly hit him again with renewed force at the thought of the night sky.

The man whose jaw he had accidentally knocked his head into had straightened up, still wincing now and then, but otherwise seemingly fine. It was as if the presence of the other two had called him to attention, and he cleared his throat calmly.

"Michelle," The ice sculpture raised an eyebrow at him, imperceptibly. "How is Noire?" They both glanced at another cot, hidden from view from Koki's angle, and he fought back the urge to crane his neck as well...and then his blood froze. 

_Noire?_ He had heard that name before, just a while ago. A scene of blood and chaos replays in his head, the most vivid memory he has right now, next to the sight of his friend lying on the cobblestones with blood oozing in unholy amounts out of his leg, and he fights the urge not to gag, or cry out in panic.

"Noire was still asleep," the one called Michelle, a delicate-looking man in a robe with rather loud patterns at the hem, responded. "Where is Pierre? I can't imagine he left with the others so readily, knowing Noire was still not awake."

"We had him wait outside," the man who had addressed Koki earlier replied. "It would be best to have him kept away from our guest, considering the rather unfortunate circumstances their second meeting ended in." The voice was familiar, and Koki felt a sudden jolt of renewed fear when he remembered who this person was.

_... I am afraid I must ask that you come with us. _ It took all of his willpower, this time, not to leap off the bed and try to run out of the room in a panic. 

This was the _leader_ of Xifang, the one commanding them all, who had led the attack on the capital and who had ordered the assassination of the king, Kanade's father. Who commanded, apparently, a terrifying armada of weird beasts that looked like tigers, and who had taken over the throne despite not being, if he remembered what Aoi or one of the older members of their team had said right, of royal birth. Dory, if he was remembering right.

The man in front of him didn't _look_ particularly dangerous or sinister, or even remotely bad. He looked like he was genuinely happy that Koki had woken up, and he was even studying him with some concern, as if worried over his well-being. Which was a ridiculous assumptionーwhy would the leader of Xifang be worried about _him?_ ーbut that was the impression he got. A trick of the imagination, he thought, but with the way the man wasn't even trying to hide how he was looking at him, Koki was seriously beginning to doubt it was all just conjecture, or a misunderstanding. He almost forgot his situationーthat he was a victim of a kidnapping (as strange as it sounded)ーand was _this_ close to asking if they perhaps knew one another. Which, he knew, was also completely ridiculous. 

And yet...

"I apologize that we had to bring you here like this, and without properly introducing everyone," The man named Dory gave him a charming smile, the sort, Koki reckoned, that would have women and men falling prey to its undeniable charisma. There was a gleam in his eyes of something akin to delight, but _that_ would make little sense. Koki was beginning to wonder if the man was trying to mislead him, confuse him on purpose; that was how hard to grasp this person was making himself. And yet, as far as the redhead could sense, there didn't seem to be any malice hidden under the kindness in the other's tone, making his head spin and pitting his fear against his growing confusion. "But it was really the best we could manage, with all that is happening between the kingdoms at the moment. However, allow me to formally welcome you to my home, where I lead operations.

"Welcome to Xifang, the Opal Kingdom. Welcome to my home, Louis."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was a tentative continued exploration into the palace of Xifang like that one chapter with Noire's perspective was, but I hope, starting the next few chapters, the scenery moves a little (and don't worry; we'll be checking up with our friends back in Nan Fang too as we go, eventually). 
> 
> This was...relatively fun to write. The "nobles" from the drama had some character introduction/appearances, but it was hard to get a complete grasp of their individual characters outside their "dramatically shouting and chanting host persona" (and I don't play the game), so this is literally me throwing interpretations into the wind. You're free to judge them as you like (not too harshly please; I'm a fragile little piece of headcanon-ing trash). 
> 
> As I was writing the flashback dialogue, I at first wondered how far I could go with it and keep it ambiguous, but at this point it's very much nearing a dead giveaway, hence why I added the final part in. If you didn't watch POL Season 2 or the second movie, then, well, enjoy. Not that anything here is in any way related to canon, aside from maybe the affiliations of the characters involved. Lord knows how many people are in the canon universe now.
> 
> On a final note, dreams are trippy. I would know: I had a dream I was riding a kiwi. The bird, for the record. And it had a hat and sunglasses on and spoke like a New York taxi driver. Yeah, that was a trip.


	26. Chapter 26

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the late update...I've been stuck in a rut and school is hell. My anxiety and random moments of panic aren't doing me any favors either.  
> But that aside, FINALLY, an update! I'm sneaking time for this, so I apologize in advance if it comes out a little messy.
> 
> I will mention this at the end, too, but updates will now come monthly, or (if time permits) there may be two in a month and then another month-long wait for the next. Something like that.

_Louis...?_

_'.......'_

_That's your name?_

_'..........yeah.'_

_It's a nice name. I like it._

_'..........'_

_You don't like it?_

_'Huh? Why wouldn't I?'_

_You don't seem very happy about it...or is there something wrong? Did something happen?_

_'Nothing happened. I'm just...trying to get used to it.'_

_Used to what?_

_'..........name.'_

_Huh?_

_'I'm trying to get used to you calling me by that name. No one callsー_ called _ー_ _me by name.'_

_Well, friends call each other by name, right? So I'm gonna do just that; unless it makes you uncomfortable?_

_'....No. It doesn't. I just need to...'_

_Get used to it?_

_'Mhm.'_

_Hmmmm...._

_'What?'_

_Louis._

_'Yes...?'_

_Louis._

_'....What is it?'_

_Louis. Louis._

_'W...what is it? You're scaring me...'_

_Louis. Louis. Louis! Louis!_

_'Cut it out! What's wrong withー'_

_Haha!_

_'What now?!'_

_So you_ can _get upset, huh? You're always so passive; I was getting worried._

_'Whaー'_

_Ah, sorry about thatーI thought if I called your name a bunch of times, you would get more used to it right here and now. Guess that didn't work, huh._

_'..........'  
_

_Everyone around me is always saying you should let things out instead of bottling them in; everything feels better that way. So you shouldn't try and act all quiet and dead inside, or whatever it is; if you're happy, say so. If you're upset, say it. If you think things are unfair..._

_'...........'_

_Then_ say _it's unfair. If no one says anything, nobody else ever will, and nothing will get done that way. It's better to just say things, rather than wait for others to guess what you're feeling, or say the things you wanna say. Life's better that way. Or at least, life_ feels _better that way. Even if things don't change 'cos you said something then, it doesn't mean it won't forever, and once you let everything out, you've suddenly got less baggage to deal with, less things to bottle up inside. It's liberating; it's free._

_'.......really?'_

_Hm?_

_'Can I...say that? Really? When I'm already doing so much wrong just byー'_

_Say it._

_'Huh?'_

_Go on. Say it. Say what you want to. I'll listen to all of it, and if anyone ever gives you grief for it, no matter who it is, I'll send them packing._

_'.........'_

_So just go on and let it all out. However much you want._

_'........I,'_

_Yeah?_

_'I want to leave.'_

_..........._

_'I want to get out of here. I want to go home. I want to eat something warm; I want to sleep in my own bed. I don't want to be here. I didn't do anything wrong; I listened and I followed the rules and I smiled and let them look at me like a monster and I didn't fight back because I knew they would hate me if I did and say I was a monster even moreー'_

_..........._

_'But I still got sent here, and no one came, and everyone probably doesn't care. It's not fair. This isn't fair. I didn't even_ do _anything. They don't even say why. They just leave me here, to rot, and I want to hate them but I can't and that doesn't feel fair too. Because they probably hate me, all of them.'_

_Louis..._

_'I want to get out of this place._ _I want to see what's out there, beyond these trees, beyond this forest. I want to leave.'_

_........_

_'I want to leave, so badly.'_

* * *

"Who?"

Koki could only offer the man in front of him a blank stare. It couldn't be helped, in his defense; already was he in a confusing situation far from anything he would ever be used toーkidnapped first, then awake in an unfamiliar bed in an unfamiliar infirmary the next. It didn't help that he'd all but crashed his skull into some guy's chin _ー_ was he okay?ーand now he was suffering from a mild bout of pain. Also fear. And stress. The list was still growing.

_Welcome to Xifang, the Opal Kingdom. Welcome to my home, Louis._

_Louis...?_

"I'm sorry," he blurted out, unable to think of anything more appropriate to say. "I think...I think you have the wrong person. I'm pretty sure...kinda positive...that my name is 'Koki', not 'Louis'." 

The man's only response was a somewhat sad smile. The other two remained impassive, although the one they had called Michelle was still rubbing his jaw from time to time. Koki immediately felt apologetic all over again.

It was silly, he knew, and surely if Kaiji or Riku knew of it they would laugh at him. Or just give him exasperated looks. _Why are_ you _the one feeling apologetic?_ they would surely ask, _You're the one that got kidnapped._

If it were Ryu, he thought suddenly, he might show a similar reaction. Or get upset, maybe: _why are you worried for your kidnappers? Worry for yourself first, idiot._ He can hear his voice in his head, almost as if it's owner was right there, beside him. 

"No," Dory (what an odd name, he thought) carefully lowered himself down onto a stool beside the bed, regarding Koki with gentle eyes. "No, I suppose that name wouldn't ring any bells with you. It seems it was never your name in the first place."

He didn't get this man's deal; what did he want? What was he saying? Maybe it was the strong smell of herbs and incense, but he felt woozy and out of sorts, leaving him unable to grasp what he was hearing and string them together in a way that made sense. Koki knew he should be afraidーthe sensation was there, sort ofーbut the odd kindness in the blonde's eyes and the languid way in which he sat, as if he intended no harm, left his sense of danger running confused circles in his head. 

"Um," Koki swallowed, fumbling with his next words. "So...it's not my name. Okay. But I still think you have the wrong person." _There isn't anything that I have you could possibly want,_ was what he wanted to continue with, before one of the men behind Dory, the one called Juukiya, cleared his throat impatiently.

"Juukiya," Dory shot him a warning look, "The boy is confused. Go join the others and give us some time to talk and sort things out; I will join you shortly."

"Is it wise?" Michelle threw a nervous glance over his back. "Noire is still..."

"It will be fine. The boy likely didn't mean so much harm to Noire as he intended to defend himself." The duo shot each other a quick glance, one impassive and the other questioning, before they both began to walk towards the door without further comment. Koki didn't know whether to be relieved or terrified. 

The man named Dory didn't speak for a while, instead standing up to circle around the cot towards the adjacent window, lightly opening it. A cool gust of wind blew in, bringing with it the smells of dry grass, mingling with the strong scent of herbs in the infirmary to create a comforting aroma that relaxed him, somewhat. From his position on the bed, he could see the faint light of the moon and stars from behind a blanket of dark clouds, all of them outlining the faint silhouettes of faraway mountaintops. In the distance, he could hearーodd as it was for the timeーthe sounds of what might have been a market; alive and bustling, with the occasional musical note threading through the hubbub of activity. When he resettled himself so he was sitting up a little straighter, he could see past the blonde man's broad back the shine of lanternsーoranges and reds and yellows, round and warm. He could almost imagine the smells of the market back homeーalmost.

(It's harder to hate them, then, even knowing everything they've doneーit's harder to brand them monsters when he can so vividly imagine them living their lives as he did, with the same degree of joy.)

"You have amnesia, or something similar to that effect, I take it," is the first thing Dory says to him in the silence, and it takes Koki a while before he realizes he's being addressed. 

"How do you...?"

A small laugh, tinged with something akin to resignation, makes its way out of the older man's lips. "Come now, is it so hard to guess? I remember you quite clearly, although I can seeー _have_ seen, for a while nowーthat you don't seem to remember me at all. Although," Glancing down at his robes, he heaved an enormous sigh. "I suppose even if you _did_ remember, you wouldn't expect me to look like... _this._ " Again he laughed, although this time with a hint of self-deprecation. 

Koki could only offer a blink.

"At first I thought it was the oddity of our situationーand our positions, which opposed one another'sーthat prevented you from recognizing me, but when I called you by name, you showed no indication of recognizing it. Even though it was an alias _you_ created; a preventative measure, I later learned, from me figuring out who your family was, or any hints of your identity, seeing as it would only have endangered me." 

"I...don't remember having any aliases." Koki swallowed. The air was light, calm even, but an underlying sense of pressure seemed to be radiating off of _somewhereー_ not this man; but some deeper sense of peril that suddenly threatened to swallow up his rationale, which knew that the only potential danger he would be facing was if he angered this man. "I don't remember knowing anyone from Xifang. And yes, I have amnesiaーmaybe I hit my head, who knowsーand I know this won't sound convincing coming from someone with a gaping hole in their memories but...I really don't think I'm the person you're looking for."

There was no response, which prompted the redhead to keep going, his words flowing out in his rush to convey them, as if a dam had broken on all his confusion. "I woke up in _Nan Fang,_ in Crimson, all the way in the south. That's...not a trek a kid my age then could've easily made from Xifang, especially considering the borders and the towns along the way. And I...I think someone would've noticed if I was a local from Xifang; they would've realized. Right? I don't..." Outside, he could hear the shrill and delighted cries of a large group of children, and he was swept with a fierce and sudden longing to be with his two friends once more, running through the streets as small kids. It would be a much better predicament than this.

"A _tanto_ blade," Dory's response is abrupt and brisk, cutting through Koki's train of thought as he continued to stammer out his reasoning. "You had one with you, didn't you?"

"Huh?"

"My brother managed to get his hands on it, after some rich brat from Dongfang came into our town, trying to show off what a grand warrior-to-be he was." Nostalgia creeping into his tone, Dory continued, "He beat him soundly in a sword fightーchild's play, of courseーand as per a bet we had all made he was forced to part with some of the...nicer toys he'd been toting around. Most of it turned out to be simple tools for practice, but that _tanto..._ it was ancient, but it was the real thing. Child that I was, I assumed that even an ancient sword was a sword, and decided to gift it to you; I didn't really expect you to use it, but some part of me always assumed having a sword to protect yourself with, to fight with, made you feel...safe." 

The scene of the blade shattering after he had made one last effort to fight back against the Xifang envoys flashed in his mind, and a shudder ran through his body at the memory of the blood that had sprayed all over him shortly after. _That's twice,_ a mocking voice echoed in his mind, _that you've hurt someone. That you've nearly_ killed _them._

_Maybe the rules really were necessary._

Startled, Koki's shoulders jolted; the thought, unbidden, seemed to have come out of nowhere, for no reason. He didn't even know _what_ it was; what rules? What necessity?

_It's almost as if it's suggesting I'm a..._

"Are you alright?" 

Without Koki noticing, Dory had come closer to peer into the younger's face, concern etched across his own. There was no pretense, no false concern; it was genuinely there, and yet that fact, more than anything, suddenly worsened Koki's confusion, making him feel more fear than he already was. Overcome with nausea and fatigue, he only shook his head in response. 

There would be nothing gained, he told himself, if he let this man keep talkingーkept letting him confuse and lead him on. As if he knew Koki somehow. As if, through this man, the lost bits of his early life could suddenly so easily come back together. And while he wasn't much for interrogation, or even clever questioning in general...

"What do you want with Nan Fang so badly, anyway?" Fighting to keep his voice from quavering, he half spat out, "No one there deserved anything you guys did to them. Why did you burn the capital? Why did you attack my friends? Why is this stupid _jiéshi_ problem _such_ a big deal that you had to go and commit _murder_ because things weren't going your way?!" 

"......" Dory's face was a mask, devoid of expression. It should have, he knew, shut him up then, but some part of him goaded the redhead to continue. 

"Everyone there has no clue why they were being targeted, or why things had to be this way in the first place. Is the _jiéshi_ so important that you guys thought it was worth...all _that?!_ That some magic rocks were much, much more important than other people's lives; that if things between you guys over these dumb rocks went south the first time, you couldn't try and find a new resolution? What did Kanade-san and his friends ever do to you? Or Aoi-san and Gabriel-san, or Kanon-san, or Takato-san, or, orー" Chest heaving, he fixed a burning glare loaded with hostility on the older man, his earlier fear forgotten in the torrent of emotions. It wasn't just anger, he realized; there was something elseーsomething more painful and helpless, fighting to break out and yet incapable of finding a fitting name for itself either.

"Why'd you guys have to hurt Ryu?"

The infirmary descended into total silence then; not even the festive sounds that had been pouring in from outside was reaching the ears of the two. Dory's face remained impassive, while Koki struggled to calm himself down, berating himself in his head for the outburst. _What am I, a kid?_ He shifted nervously as his eyes went downwards, breaking eye contact. The small wooden statuette Ryu had given him (it hadn't fallen anywhere throughout the entire mess, thankfully), bumped against him lightly, and he almost, _almost,_ felt a little relieved knowing it was there. The painstakingly carved outline and the tiny, well-balanced details had, he remembered, feeling as if it were a lifetime ago, stolen his breath away; he didn't think he'd ever seen something so lovingly or carefully created. It was, for better or worse, he thought ruefully, giving him some amount of bravery in the situation.

Unfortunately, he was beginning to seriously resent his habit of letting himself blurt out whatever came to mind in tandem with his emotions. If it didn't kill him now, it was probably going to rearrange that appointment at a later date.

"There are several factors at play here beyond what you know or understand, child."

The voice came from the doorway, so abruptly that Koki would have leapt out of the bed had Dory not been standing at the side, face still mere inches from his own. Instead he opted to whirl around towards the direction of the voice, making a few (embarrassing as it was to admit) _undignified_ squeaking noises of shock at the intrusion. He hadn't heard a door open, nor had he felt anyone's presence besides their own, the unconscious Noire a few cots down aside. The personーa tall, mild looking man in a modest _yukataー_ was standing casually next to the infirmary entrance, a small smile drawn across his face. His hair was a simple black with a short cut, and he looked well above Koki's own ageーand Dory's, too. There was nothing particularly threatening about his demeanor, but the suddenness with which he had appeared put the redhead on guard, although his very casual appearance made that stance hard to maintain. 

Dory sighed. "I thought I made it clear I wished to talk to Louis myself."

"Apologies, but as it stood it was clear the boy would be in no shape to properly understand your words, or their implication. He _was_ just whisked from his little haven in Nan Fang, after all." The man offered Dory a thin smile, before fixing his gaze on Koki. Casual as it was, the smile was almost fox-like in its appearance; there was something lurking in his eyes, and yet when he blinked it was gone, his face back to the mild and almost weak-willed look that he had worn since he made his presence known.

"...Who're you?" Koki fixed his eyes on the newcomer, trying to still his unease.

"Me?" The man put a hand across his chest in a humble gesture, smiling all the while. "I am but a humble servant of Xifang; an advisor and strategist, who lacks the prowess and bravery, as shameful as it is to admit, to serve on the front lines." Extending a hand to Koki, he continued in a friendly tone of voice,

"You may call me Noah."

* * *

Julian was in the library. Julian was always in the library, recently, or so it seemed. Maybe it felt that way because the only time Pierre ever opened those ancient, creaking doors was when he was looking for the stockily built man, and so some part of his mind had settled on the idea that his fellow noble and their current (and only, really) expert in reconnaissance would always be there, no matter when he decided to enter. Despite his rather charmingly humorous appearance, what with the fine mustache and all, making him appear as a rich gentleman from a fairy tale, he was also an expert fighter, although his weapon of choice involved a variety of rare weapons, one of them being a flail. A spiked ball on a chain, quite literally. Pierre _never_ wanted to find himself on the other end of that battle.

"Julian!" he half bellowed, storming through the doors, not minding the page near them who jumped, startled, at his sudden and loud appearance. Ignoring the yelp of pain from the unfortunate boy, who had tripped in his surprise, he stormed up to his cohort, who was calmly flipping through a thick volume, a cup of tea in one hand. Turning only his eyes towards his younger companion, he gently placed the cup on its saucer before gesturing at the seat across from him, as if inviting the other to tea. 

"Sit down, Pierre, and do calm down. You will pop a blood vessel. _Again,_ I might add." At those words, he began to pour another cup of tea, a cart at his side. A platter of cookies, small and colorful, was placed on the table, but Pierre could care less about them right now. Even if they smelled freshly baked and tantalizingly sweet.

Slamming a fist down, he snapped, "I'm not here to drink your stupid tea, or eat your tiny, pastel colored cookies." Without missing a beat, he snatched the cup from the other, taking a huge, scalding sip. Julian's expression remained passive; he didn't so much as raise an eyebrow.

Placing the cup back on the saucer with more force than necessary, Pierre growled, "What the hell is going on? First we receive orders to attack the capital in order to use those half constructs to test the _jiéshi_ levels of the place; that I get. And we needed to draw out those Nan Fang bastards; sure, why not. Let them know we're serious. I didn't mind that part. Weird orders, but _that guy_ makes weird demands, so I went with it. _We_ went with it." His eyes narrowed. "But then Dory suddenly tells us there's someone there he needs to 'pick up'. And then suddenly we're bringing home this kid, who also stabbed Noire in a bad place, and what I don't understand is why we're not locking him up, or why no one even looks particularly mad that he stabbed our companion in the first place." At this, Julian gave a small chuckle. "The hell are you laughing about?"

"So your primary concern is Noire, then? I may have misjudged you; all those squabbles led me to less...savory conclusions regarding the nature of you two and your relationship to one another. It is heartwarming to know that you care, as...loud as you tend to be about it."

Pierre snatched a cookie and waved it threateningly in the other man's direction. "Don't change the topic, Julian; yeah I'm worried about Noire. He's one of the few decent mages we have, although I'd never say so to his face. And as annoying as he is, he's still part of the team. At the very least we've known each other for long enough that if one of us got stabbed near to death, we would be concerned. Besides," He shot Julian a cheeky look, although it was partially ruined by the small, pastel pink crumbs on his lips. "The dumb teddy lover owes me for the damage done to my room. I'm still finding shards of pottery in weird places." He paused, frowning. "And don't change the subject. If it had been Michelle, or Guerrero, or Chabo, or Seiya, or Daina, or, hell, even Juukiya, I still would've stormed in here demanding answers."

Julian regarded his junior with a gaze wrought with fatigue; there were answers _he_ sought as well, all of them sprung with questions similar to the ones Pierre was throwing at him now, but, truth be told, even he didn't fully understand. The first runs of the experiments had been dastardly enough, and despite almost every one of the higher up's protests (silent or loud) had been shot down by the argument, "for the sake of Xifang." And while he would have believed it had it been Dory who said it more often...

Well, he wouldn't be here, asking for answers in the first place.

"So tell me, Julian, what exactly do you know?"

* * *

For better or worse, Julian mused, Pierre's persistence was impressiveーpraise-worthy, even. He had thought that it had been the more mild looking yet oddly cunning of the duo, Noire, who had been the more persistent and questioning one. 

Unfortunately, however, in Xifang, it was hard to applaud such curiosity and tenacity, considering the wrong question could leave you staring at the point of someone else's sword (and it didn't necessarily have to be for a particularly secretive matter). Privacy, he knew, was one thing Xifang cherished, if not the outright secrecy so prevalent of Beifang. 

"If you wish to know more," Delicately pinching a cookie between his fingers, offering the platter to Pierre in the process, he continued, "Then you may have to ask...well, Noah."

"Hell no."

"See?" Julian heaved another massive sigh as he nibbled the cookie. "It's impossible. As of now, he is the one offering the plans to Dory, and Dory is the one giving the orders. It's an unfortunate situation, but it can't be helped; if the previous monarch hadn't made the mistake he did, that man would have had no power to begin with."

The last monarch had been, Senior, for lack of better word, colder than their current one. Not a bad person, per say, but one who sometimes took extreme action for the sake of a goal, without searching for better alternatives. In some ways, the two were alike; however, this particular case had been all but pushed upon them after the previous emperor had been forced out of his throne; the result of a plot devised, according to Noah, by "traitors and exiles", members of a lineage long deemed unworthy of their birthright to the throne; the blood heir to Xifang, in other words.

The conflict had been several years before, back when Xifang _had_ a ruling lineage. They hadn't exactly been the best of rulers, but things had been relatively peaceful under their watch, with border skirmishes being about the only issue they had their hands full of. However, Senior had risen up against the royal family in an unprecedented coup d'etat for (according to what he had heard whispered by gossiping higher ups) a very simple reason: the issues with _jiéshi_ that began popping up in Xifang roughly a year and a half ago, a few short months after the issue in Dongfang had begun. The monarchy had kept the issue a secret, but a leak from the palace must have made its way to the young man's ears, for a month or so after the issue had first been discovered, debates over the _jiéshi_ were already circulating. 

The _jiéshi_ was, in Xifang, a much-needed resource; Beifang had been able to retain their secrecy and keep mum for almost a year because their reliance on it wasn't so dire it would immediately spiral their kingdom into madness, but Xifang, similar to Dongfang, needed the mineral desperately to keep up with their counterparts in the south and north. The monarchy had been set on keeping a stance of secrecy; Senior, on the other hand, had wanted to rely on the aid of one of the other three kingdoms; Nan Fang in particular, for their technological expertise; the results of a growing scientific and artistic community. He had been, at the time, a member of the monarchy's diplomatic committee. The coup d'etat sprang after a fight in a remote town close to the Beifang-Xifang border had sprung, between two families squabbling over their cut of the mineral they had mined, resulting in more deaths than necessary when the onlookers had tried to intervene. The magic had gone haywire and sprung itself on a child, along with his mother, spreading pandemonium amongst the villagers. And, incidentally, the village happened to have been the one Senior had (according, once again, to Julian's limited knowledge) been born in. Among the dead were a few close acquaintances, or so it was said.

The coup d'etat had taken place in the capital; Senior and his amassed nobles (mostly those in positions where they could reach higher, but were barred by traditional restrictions) against the monarchy. Julian had been living in the capital at the time, and he couldn't recall just how many times the warning bells, signaling a fire or a battle, had rung in the dead of night, or at the most random times in the afternoon. Half the capital's denizens had evacuated, while the remaining ones positioned themselves into factions: those with the monarchy; those with Senior; and those, like Julian had, who had not chosen a side at all. In the ensuing chaos, which ended with the monarchy's defeat and subsequent death in battle, the last remaining blood heir had also, supposedly, gone missing (and was supposedly dead; it had, after all, been well over a year since)ーaccording to Noah, it would later be that missing heir's influence that resulted in the downfall of Senior's reign, after a year and some on the throne. 

_On that part,_ Daina had said sourly, an uncharacteristic scowl on his face, _he's not completely wrong. It kind of_ is _the heir's fault that Dory had to take the throne, a few months after he had gone missing. Didn't even say his farewells; guess they couldn't, considering_ we _were on their tail._

Dory's own coup d'etat had occurred roughly a year or so after Senior's reign had begun; he had, according to Pierre, known the blood heir, but not known that he was royalty. The passing of a few months after his disappearance yielded the truth, prompting their current leader into action months afterwards, after much amassing and planning. And his rise to the throne had, by some unknown means, led to the mysterious appearance of Noah, who claimed himself a "humble strategist and expert in alchemy who could solve the issue of the _jiéshi"._

"You know more than I do about certain things," was Pierre's retort, dragging Julian back to the present, half a cookie dangling between his fingers. "You know about the _niliu,_ for starters."

Julian raised an eyebrow. "Dory told you?"

"The others did," Pierre gave a huff. "And I heard it when Noah told us to go nab that kid, but I still don't get why we need one."

The _niliu,_ or the forsaken children, as Julian had grown up hearing, were supposed to be an anomaly in their order-driven world, where the flows produced by, first, the Four, and then the _jiéshi_ that had been left behind, reigned supreme. The ability of _niliu_ to interfere with the flows was certainly a hassle, but, he had thought, not something worth stirring up so great a fuss. Until Noah had (and assuming he was telling the truth) let slip what exactly having _niliu_ constituted. 

"You have a base idea of what _niliu_ is, correct?"

"Yeah, Michelle gave me the whole spiel." 

"Then," Julian shot a look at the library doors. "Do you know _why,_ theoretically, they exist?"

Pierre tilted his head. "'Theoretically?'"

"I say theoretically," Julian coughed lightly, gingerly holding his teacup, "Because this is what Dory told me."

Pierre snorted. "I knew you knew something."

"Not as much as you think," he countered. "But, yes, admittedly, I've heard enough about the _niliu_ to have a faint guess as to what Noahー _Dory,_ wants to use the child for." Quietly, he set the cup back on the saucer without touching the tea. "You know our world is primarily comprised of 'flows', correct? The balance maintained between the Four and the kingdoms was what kept the magic on our continent intactーI haven't a clue how the western continent managesーand that after their disappearance, the earth started to take in the flow in the form of the minerals we know as _jiéshi,_ when, previously, such minerals hadn't existed. After they came into being, various theories were created surrounding their internal structure and such, but the main point was that it was the only physical means by which humans could come into contact with the flow at that point. And we did, although caste rules about who could utilize it and such were developed not long after.

"At any rate, as I'm sure you know, the _niliu_ is an odd condition that prevents a person from using the 'flow' properlyーthey can use it, but it...goes haywire. When the condition first appeared, no one knew what to do with it, or what to make of it, for that matter. And it's rare; aside from the child, I can estimate that less than one hundred other people on the whole continent have the conditionーa hundred out of the millions of people that must be living on this entire continent. One hundred we will surely never find. It's a miracle we even found this one. And that is what I know of them, myself; from here on out I will tell you what Doryーand by extension, Noah, likelyーknows." 

Pierre's only response was a nod, a complicated expression on his face.

"They think that the _niliu_ aren't messing with the flow; they're _redirecting_ it to match a certain environment." Julian held up a hand; already he could see Pierre's mouth open, head swimming with questions. "Please allow me to continueーit's not for _every_ environment, and according to those two, the reason everyone else perceives it as such is because the _niliu_ shouldn't even 'be around them'; if the flow appears wrong, then they aren't in the proper environment. Think of a tree, trying to grow on land it isn't accustomed toーto the rest of us, that tree is out of place, and disrupts the scenery of the forest. But that tree, when grown in its proper environment, will flourish and fit right in. 

"The abilities of the _niliu_ are a 'navigation' system of sorts; a means to navigate a certain environment, where the flow isn't the way it is anywhere else, and normal mages would be unable to exert the levels of control they do normally. Their control of the flow, supposedly, isn't defective or unhingedーin that one location they are in their element, when no one else is able to. Of course, as mages in _our_ environment are, there are also levels to how powerful the 'control' people with _niliu_ have. Judging from what you and Noire told me last time, this child's may not be all that particularly strongーbut it doesn't sound particularly weak either."

"'Certain environment'," Pierre turned wide eyes on his cohort. "You keep saying that, and I'm starting to have a _really_ uneasy feeling about where that is."

"There are very few environments you could think of that would match my explanation," Julian nodded glumly. "At best, there are two guessesーbut of the two, you are likely thinking of the correct one."

"Ahh, no," Pierre groaned. "Are you kidding me?"

"The convergence point," Throat aching from talking so long, he lifted his lukewarm tea to his mouth, grimacing at its watered down taste. He would have to go and request another potーfresh and piping hot, of course. "That is the central focal point of all our plans to restore the _jiéshi_ , or so I've been told."

Pierre, who had all but slid down dramatically against the backrest of his chair, gave him a questioning raise of his eyebrow. "Yeah? And did they tell you why?"

"In fact, they did so happen to."

"I _knew_ you knew more thanー!"

"Yes, yes, I heard you the first time," Julian waved a hand impatiently. "But _do_ keep in mind that this isn't information to be shared easily; I don't mind if you share it with the others, but do please give it some consideration first." At this, Pierre gave a loud snort, but still nodded his assent. 

"The plan Noah proposes," Here, he grimaced, as if chewing something bitter. "Is that the experimentsーour attempts at recreating Baihu's magic based on that spell Noah gave usーis failing because we are missing a key component of the whole contract in the first place; that is, where everything is rumored to have started, and ended, if the myths whispered are to be correct."

"You mean the ones saying that Baihu and the other three came from the convergence point and then were last seen there before vanishing?"

"Those precisely. You see, the convergence point has always been a place of dangerous magic, but never once has it been expressly mentioned that the flow there has _always_ been different from the one on the rest of the continent. The flow we are used to may very well be different now from the one in the past; after all, the Four controlling the flow as it was are no longer around, and their remnants are all that remain. Theoretically, wouldn't it be odd, then, for the flow of magic they controlled to still be functioning as perfectly as it did when they were actively participating in our world?

"But I digressーthe point is the flow there, if the theories our research is based off of is correct, is that the convergence point is actually a place of old magic, not a distorted one. The flow there, then, would be impossible to navigate without a mythical beast guiding usーtherein lies our dilemma, for it is _because_ we need a mythical beast that we wish to enter in the first place. The factor of the _niliu_ changes things however; now we have a navigator, a guide to traverse and control the flow. Of course, that is considering the child does it willingly, or has enough ability to do it in the first place."

" _That's_ why Dory didn't want to treat him like a prisoner then," Pierre muttered, voice barely audible. "He didn't want to frighten the kid; otherwise he'd have trouble getting him to do this." _For us,_ he omitted, but the two of them could feel the presence of the unspoken phrase, hanging heavily between them like a shroud. Julian had only seen the child briefly, but the youth of his features had struck him. _We are kidnapping a child and trying to make him set foot in forbidden territory for the sake of our goals,_ he had thought, and (not for the first time) doubts had surged in his mind. 

But what good would it do now? How many had already been sacrificed? Not just from Xifang, but from their ally, Dongfang, and from their unknowing victim, Beifang? They had already gone and made Nan Fang their enemy too; even if the king, who had realized their plot to recreate a contract to a likeness of Baihu herself, was dead, his son and companions would likely figure things out soon enough. There wasn't anywhere to turn back _to;_ Noah's plan had made it as such. 

And why had they followed it so thoroughly? It was a regret that seemed to grow, day by day, but he knew he had no say in this matter. _The one who needs this the most, who's the most desperate, is..._

"So we need to get to the convergence point, find out why the hell these 'half constructs' are all that's been popping up in our experiments lately, and then what? Summon Baihuーor a likeness of herーand use the contract to restore the diminishing supply of _jiéshi?_ How do we even do that?"

"When the Four vanished, the trace remains of the magic they bestowed upon us were absorbed by the land herself, thus replenishing that supply in the form of minerals. The cycle of the flow allowed the earth to continue to create more and more of the _jiéshi,_ as we continued to use magic. However, according to what I have heard, the recent drop of magic use prevalent in Nan Fang and the lower class in all four kingdoms has led to there being less of a return of energy in the cycle; in effect, the earth has little energy to create more _jiéshi._ The recreation of a contract should be drastic enough to 'boost' the system, or so Noah saysーeven if the contract is not permanent, it will likely lead to a solution that could last long enough, for several generations. And if the research is completed, then the copies can be passed down to future generations, so that, they, too, can use the same method without the same number of sacrifices when the time comes."

Pierre rolled his head back, face turned upwards towards the ceiling. "I get why Dory's doing this...I know, I really do. We _need_ that _jiéshi._ And it's not just us, either. I get that. But..." He grimaced, closing his eyes. "Even if it works, what then? Think about it, Julian; we're risking our lives for this, yes, but not everyone signed up for it willingly. Hell, even Dongfang probably doesn't fully understand what we're doing. I'm not getting cold feetーit's just..." Voice dropping to barely a whisper, Pierre continued. "It's getting more and more difficult to see what we're doing as 'right' by the day. I'm still mad at the redheaded brat, but now that I think about it, he's just a _kid._ A child, Julian. How are we gonna make him help us? What will we do to him if he doesn't? What will _Noah_ do?" Something akin to fear had crept into his voiceーto Julian, it appeared as if the normally hotheaded man were now rambling to himself, addressing no one's ears but his own. "That's why we can't quit, I guessーsomething tells me that... _fox_ will do a whole lot worse to us if we do. Something horrible."

Julian smiled, a little self-deprecatingly. "I can't imagine," he laughed bitterly, "Things getting any worse after the heir died."

There was a moment of dead silence, before Pierre muttered, "I guess you're right, but it sure hurts like hell when you say it out loud."

"I can only imagine," Julian murmured sympathetically. "After all, you were good friends, from what I heard."

"Well, you heard right." A beat, before the wild-haired noble slowly sat up, lifting his teacup to his mouth, staring into the liquid which reflected his face. His expression looked worn and tired, as if over the course of their conversation he had aged by several decades. 

"Poor Ayumu," came the soft murmur. "And poor Nobutora. Just 'cos he was royalty. I don't know if those other guys feel any remorse over it, and I can't exactly blame them for what happened either, but..." There was a sigh, loaded with sorrow. "I still can't believe he's dead. And he was such a good kid, too."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Updates will now likely be coming monthly. Sorry for the late notice...
> 
> I just laid out a pretty huge portion of recent Xifang history (I gotta offer something interesting after a month of radio silence, y'know?), but what do you all think? Where will this all go?  
> The last portion, by the way, was a mix of two people's perspectives (so sorry if things got confusing; I tried to split it so it would make sense). Can't really tell the history the way I did if I was reciting from Pierre's part of the tale.
> 
> I might as well ask now, but have you guys noticed how the narration surrounding the niliu always changes? Kanon says it's an aversion, but the Xifang folks say otherwise; that was a small detail on my part that was supposed to show how each kingdom (and culture) views them. I'm oddly happy with itーwhat did you guys think?


End file.
